Plant Propagation , The Basics Dec.2016

does Debra know her membership has been renewed? anyone have her email address?

Merry Christmas! Kitt, drive safe and stay warm!
I'm going to type 35 here and then I'm going to hold down the 'Alt' key (to the left and right of the spacebar), while I type '0176'.

This is what I get...35°
☺

and when I hold down the alt key and type 0176 I get the degree sign with no numbers because nothing above?

It's Christmas , That is nice gift for those of us that do not know that ,,
However it's Christmas Day.. I am not in class today , lol Smiley

My gift for this year is having the whole holiday over yesterday, only day all daughters and all grandchildren could be available

I was wondering about Debra also , but she said last time she was not well .
Lots of home problems and all .
I have not communicated much with anybody lately , However seeds to do after today , I will send a few here and there ,
I found the purple milkweed seeds from Debra last season , Planting more , May have one growing from last time ,
I have for the moment spaced some seeds I need to plant in March or so , (gives me a while to relocate them , ?
Waiting to go to family get together ,
Playing in the Garden mud off and on meanwhile ,

Merry Christmas, everyone! And a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Thanks for the 'lesson', Robin. I've seen that before, but I guess I don't type degrees often enough to remember how to do it.

It's 69° here now, supposed to have a high of 80° today, and a really frigid front coming down next week. We'll see.

Had our family Christmas yesterday, so all is peaceful and quiet here today. I like it like that!

Rusty

It is 75°here with 40 mph wind gusts and muggy. going to have to go put a moisture escape board on the top of my hives. Can't call another bee club member to help with that, and don't want to vent the big hive from the bottom as they need another oxalic acid vapor treatment as soon as my arm is healthy enough, and if I open I have to re-tape the bottom sticky board.

raining here , 61 degrees I was planting purple milkweed until I got rained out ,
yesterday I planted Cerise queen yarrow nothing came of that last time
A couple Japanese iris
All kinds of things planted ,
Doing pre surgery eye drops , one of them burns , big surprise huh ? , lol .sort of ,

I hear Mich is abt to get nasty...made it to Spokane and am getting rested now. My road was exceptionally clear- happily no problems but running out of blue juice too often. My Christmas was peaceful, but not nearly long enough for sleepin late.

I was over on the weather thread looking at those scenic photo pics Katt , Pretty ,, and (but) I'm glad to be not driving in that ,,

Here are few not so interesting , except to me , lol
16 or 17 row of purple Milkweed
The Milkweed row of white cups with 15 ? poppies (papaver )planted in front
A center stage Red Coreopsis in a bottle , a started runner
Red Garlic
Some Erigeron in a pot with two small coneflowers and purple Bellflower

So Ju, I harvested one plant of asclepius tuberosa seeds, planted one pod's worth outdoors in a flower bed. Should I start them outdoors or in pots? I have quite a LOT.

who ever signed me up, thanks. I'll pass it forward when I figure out what I am doing.
great planting, Ju. Christmas was great, Joe did the tree, it was half price at a Hongs Nursery and Pond store. Thanks for the cards, I'd plant those wet seed pods , now, mother nature wets her seed pods and drys them out and blows them to the wind in the country. Treat them as if they are n a roadside berb. I got two plats from some swan plant ( milkweed) hairy balls. I let the Chinese beans on the north fence on so they can fall into the ground as mother nature intends it to happen, . Joanna my 28yr old left the tropical hibiscus from a cutting outside ad it froze of course, but the silly girl brought her pot of mint inside, I told her to put it back out and leave all those on the patio deck so they can go thru the winter ad come back in spring.
I have so may seeds here and there while hustling to get all the seed tubs and stuff off my chair table and puter desk. the girls... we need a "like" button to Like your posts LOL

I find I do like the chance to simply agree on some posts without making comments...

Mine grow and mature slow Gypsi , I have had them grow like a small shrub after a few years , The seeds do not have a high germination rate , But they just need covered enough to stay in place , some wet stringy mulch or a light dusting of earth , Like Debra said ,, in their native places , like an herb ,
My self the patience is the thing waiting for some to mature ,
30 degrees again , not an exceptionally cold , but after yesterdays low 60's , it feels cold this morning ,
I need to put a couple stepping stones in place with those yesterday , and to decide what else to place out there in the garden ,
Back in a while it's coffee time

I have discovered 3 tubs of seeds, sigh, and dau says we letting stuff go, shes moving. Been in 1 spot far too long. Will be Jan before i do any cleaning- tho I know everything tropical bit the dust while I was home.

I have several seeds here and there , I using the rings (cups ) then setting plugs with a seed in those Bottom is out of the cups , to let the plant grow , That way I keep track of where thing are planted , , easier to replace failures , gives me creative ideas of the look of such ,,
Planted the last of the Chelone seeds , I still don't have any growing I goof on the fall planting frequently , Meaning time gets away from me as to when to plant ,
For now , poppies and milkweed I need to get finished , I don't know if any good a lot of the seeds I have are , But I still get a few plants from them most of the time
Lettuce , onions , beets . all those to get to during the next few months ,

All I can do right now is get all the tubs, bags, boxes and suitcases of seeds i one location. we still have family in from out of town so I will be enjoying their company for another day. It was nice having a dog in the house too. They brought their rescue dog with them and she took to my youngest, ad my chair- immediately. I could have sworn they said no more pets after losing their last lab, Angel. I am glad they changed their minds. I started some tropical hibiscus, brugs and Kings Mantle so we will see how those go. in the 50's today. everything outside is Brown....

Beautiful and very comfortable lab, beautiful tree!

Debra my sister was sitting a retriever along with Her Family's Husky when were there for dinner , Nice tree and nice family Debra , The plants and tubs will wait ,
A row of 31 purple Milkweed seeds below ,

Some of my play , not all the jugs are planted only set up , One has more purple Milkweed , other Beard's tongue Superbum Michiana lily Cups are easy to weed and identify , all that is needed to keep the weeds down is a sharp pair of scissors , make it easier .
Second photo , on the right a barely visible root from a seeds , one of the seeds (lower riight center ) is green at the end of a leaf covering most of it , should grow , hope , hope ,,
Later with much more to do , I may put a row of zinnia on both sides of the row , but will be a while for sure . A big chicory is the leaves near the center of the Jugs

well I put in seed for echinacea and scattered poppy and larkspur and the little red wildflower with the round ball seed pods (which are like pie pieces but they wouldn't come apart. and planted half a dozen surviving pansies from Ace to help me remember to water the bed. I have a pot in it with a root cutting from Carolina Jessamine that took off, buried the bottom couple of inches, and another with an August Beauty Gardenia that didn't like living in the ground but loves a pot a couple inches above. When the tall wildflowers and A.Tuberosa come up it will help hide the pots on them.

Fair number of things do not like my ground. Mums. Simple Chrysanthemums. I had to lift all of the survivors and put them in pots in the shade this august, no amount of watering would save them. Forget Dahlias, they have to live in a pot. I have one with surviving bulbs I will bag but I now consider them annuals and don't spend much on them and put them in big pots. Soil is too dense, hardens too much, maybe the pH is wrong, and no amount of amending will fix our heat.

Hoping my peonies make it, I put them in a slightly raised and amended bed on the east side of the house. I have seen them live through Texas winter and summer, and they made it through the year in pots until November or so.

Gypsi you make it sound like Mesquite , Cacti , and Tumble weeds aloe and agave . are the only choices ..
Desert is difficult to grow anything ,
Still doing eye drops I will try another row or two of poppy seeds today I have eye surgery tomorrow , so that will be all for a week or two , No Counting or sorting seeds as to eye stress and all that ,

At first You see a row with poppies added

and then ,, Al-a-kazam now you don't ..

And lastly ,, the opinions come in first being " oh Exciting "

Actually Bermuda grass grows best Ju. Good luck with surgery

This message was edited Dec 29, 2016 8:42 AM

Good thoughts and prayers for you tomorrow, Ju, that all goes well. I sincerely hope your cataract surgery is as successful as mine has been!! Yes, the drops are a nuisance, but oh, am I ever glad I had mine done!
Rusty

Good pressure 20-30 vision after surgery back in a bit
thank you well wishes and energy are helpers ,,,

Chuckl, good to see ya! Ju! I thought about you tonite and that heavy propagation you do. Am in Stagecoach, Idaho, and it is cold. Makes me wonder tho, if there was a thaw in the last few snows...the propagation of those simple drips is pretty impressive!

Great news JU. Enjoy your new vision. And do as the Dr. told you. And do not forget your eye drops. "Yes Mother Winter"...

Kitt, we had freezing weather here two weeks ago an today we had a high of 60.

Happy New Year to everyone. Another funeral to attend tomorrow. Am so looking forward to 2017. Last two months I have lost too many friends. Hugs Sharon

Heard of fire and ice ,, had not seen Iron & Ice in a while

Well I went to the feed store to pick up organic potting soil and they didn't have any. I have lots of pots that had tomatoes and peppers in them from last year. I want to revive and freshen the soil mostly organically. I have eggshells and epsom salts and blood meal and chicken poop and rabbit poop, and rabbit poop with hay and urine (thinking that might be a bit too strong without a long compost, and the compost pile needs turned so I can probably get some good stuff from the bottom. I have a 25 gallon small tank I can get up on a surface to turn I think and stir it all up. What do you think? I need seed starting mix. New plants for the new year

Be another day or two before I do much ,(not that I really usually do a bunch at any time anyway )

well can you tell me what to dump in with last year's old organic potting mix, preferably stuff I don't have to buy?

Depends on what is there , ground up plant waste that does not have seeds in it , any uneaten greens , Rock dust , Whatever you have that is well,, organic ,,
One I use to play with , was the Ketchup , mustard , or syrup I would puton a Burger or Pancake , mix it up and put it in the mix for my Tomato plants , it worked well on some in a raised bed , I don't water pots enough (lazy at attention ,,

Not sure if Ju is hungry or the tomatoes were...

Gypsi, what I use for soil amendments are;
perlite
vermiculite
chicken grit (fine)
sand
soil conditioner
peat moss
diatomaceous earth (or sometimes found as oil dry, or oil absorbent)
compost
For seed starting all you really need is vermiculite, that's my medium of choice.

No Katt wasn't hungry , only got that way doing that , You know that was an easy way mixed up as watering for re-enlivening old soils , lol
I use the DE earth some , a little lemon or Vinegar for living up electric particle intake , Those common kitchen goods contain iron, sulpher and several more used for gardening , vitamin c always a good old one for acid loving plants ,
The no buy was an the thought ,about what was probably there and rock dust always there , get a broom and sweep a walk ,, lol

Happy New Year! Alice, try crumbling up crispy leaves and grass stems, old chicken straw or hay, in your pots. Shredded card board bits n pieces, coffee grinds and chop up used Styrofoam cups in a blender if you are tying to rev up old soil without spending money. I do all those things myself. I'm going to go look for old blenders to use for chipping dried tree bark.
cardboard with corrugation is great with layered coffee grounds and as it degrades down it leaves a fine layer for seed sowing. My "N" key is sticking!
Hope your sight is almost perfect, Ju, I love your winter sowing outside.
Kitt, dang! That looks cold!

Happy New Year! going to take the granddaughter home tomorrow and make my potting soil the next day I guess. got giant turks cap dug out and divided ready to share, in a pot with some dirt over the roots for now, moved 2 forsythia, seeded the shrub rearing patch with A. Tuberosa, galliardia, and poppies. and maybe some echinacea blew in. then planted 3 snapdragons and 3 pansies in it to remind me to water.

Happy New Year all. Have been busy with family. Went home and brought my mom up to stay with us for a few days then took her back yesterday and spent the night with my sister, brother and their spouses. Played a lot of cards for old time sake. Pretty quiet New Years Eve. In bed shortly after 11:00.
Back home now waiting for 1 more seed catalogue so I can get my orders in.
Keith

Happy New year and blessings everyone!!!