Plant propagation the Basics March 2018

Someone had suggested it might be pineapple salvia but I didn't go out and smell it yet. Went to six flags with one daughter and 4 grandkids yesterday, kinda tired, trying to get tidycat buckets ready for tomatoes.

Snow blooming Redbud

WOW! Hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy Easter. No snow, but it feels like it could any minute, getting down to 28 and there are several tropicals out, so if they live-great and if they don't- great.. :P

Just back from Laughlin. Was over 90°F when we left there Saturday afternoon. Forecast here is for -20°C tonight. Put a fire on in greenhouse when we got home today to start some serious planting tomorrow. Hard to get excited about it at these temperatures. Going to be a lot of fire stoking trips in the night. Brrrr!

Evidence of a very ambitious Pileated Woodpecker in our back yard. We have a lot of overmature poplar trees on our property so we always seem to have a family nesting here every year. This was on the base of a large balsam fir. Came across this last week when I was on a mission collecting twigs to cover a bird house I am working on.

OMGOSH, Keith, that is a very good picture. I'd love to send that to my Bird Guy here. It's an awesome example of that birds habit. Brrr! Got down to 27! Everything looks like it got cold, but still kicking.. *sigh*

It's cold here, deciding whether to start a fire, going to make warm syrup for yesterday's bee swarm.

Love the photo's Keth , The temperature change , goodness , adjustment for homecoming , The Bird nest is cool ,

Debra , Cold weather is staying this year ,,

Gypsi ,, Happy bees !!!

Ju? My daylilies are trying to bloom, but I have never seen them do so on such limpstalks? Hope the late cold doesnt seep in slow and burn those plants Deb. It is hot enough here I am already indoors by 10 and waiting less heated air. Going to be forced to dust plants now- catching glimpses of too many various stages of stinker bugs...my barley grass is starting to form heads as well.

2 swarms in boxes and mine is still in the peach tree, they are stubborn bees.And I have to eat first.

Kitt soil type and heat probably , That is often the way the d'ORO type looks ,

Gypsi , Bees are the nature type that does what it wants as that . etc , too bad you humans , we are doing it this way for now ,,
1 A small Verbena
2 A Echinacea Cheyenne spirit

Raining outside ,

Beautiful photos, Ju and Keith, and the woodpecker holes are something else, we have all kinds of woodpeckers, including Pileated here but I've never seen them do that to the bottom of a tree before, must be some good grub down there.

Kitt my day-lilies are doing the same thing, they haven't bloomed yet, we did have quite a bit late very cold temps this year.

My little Downy Woodpecker, enjoying a frosted back hummingbird tree.

They are the still in the peach tree, I put out a bunch of bait hives, safer in a hive than getting sprayed in someone's attic, putting out a bucket of syrup and going to work

I was tryin to remember which these are, think a Kwanso type, which will explain the grass style growth, I guess. Rain expected tonite and apparently my cooldown weather. First blooms on maters, I think maybe relocating to mow and that breeze has them realizing that this is their window to set blooms. Peppers have been blooming last several days. I am afraid my basils are burning in the pots with the maters- more Happy Frog than they need- so gonna have to relocate to a fallow bed I have.

Gosh , everyone is gardening... :P
I'm just sitting here wishing, it got down to 24 the other night and going down to 20 Friday night, then up to the 80's of course, by Sunday for a day. I'm balking at lifting leaves, and now I am glad I did. Mock orange is budded, flowering almond is blooming, so is spirea, red buckeye is loaded with bloom buds, gosh should I give them all little individual blankets? LOL uhm... NOPE.

We put blankets on our plants here in Florida...☺ Hang in there Debra, sounds like the trees are ready for spring.

Sigh, layin mulch and weeding, setting stones back up out of sand they sank into. Hummer snuck in this mornin to the feeder cuz it was 50*, guess she was cold. Have seen them share the feeders on cold days when I warm up the sugar closer to summer day warmth. We ate our mung bean experiment on salad last nite. My daughter actually tried them and was surprised cuz she thot they tasted like lettuce. Maybe a new food she can eat.

what is a mung bean?

lol will look up later

A very tiny green colored bean. You can buy a small can of them supposedly at Walmart or Target. The ones I hauled were commercial sized cans and tasted just as good, mostly. Those beans are beside a lentil for comparison. They are also outdoors sprouting now. May as well, I am here to water them. I soaked them for 18 hrs plain water on the 28th, then chunked them into that home made sprouter. They were ready to bust out of the container and be eaten on the 4th April. Washed them every day maybe 2 or 3x a day, and put them on the floor of my closet to keep it dark enough.



This message was edited Apr 5, 2018 10:03 PM

Cool

Hi and goodbye all

I have advised Admin (if they happen to read it) that I no longer wish to maintain my membership. I have requested that they divide my 6 remaining years of membership among 6 members on this and the Perrenial Forum. If you happen to see extra membership on your account this is where it came from. It has been a pleasure
Keith

Keith Thank you for all the delightful times you have shared with us , We will remember and hope to hear from you in the future ,
It has been great having you here ,

Thank you Keith, that is very generous. It was interesting learning about gardening in the north. You will be missed.

Management. Strange subject.

I am a moderator of a bee forum that was purchased by a corporation. I can't get ahold of the company guy that is supposed to manage the site, haven't been able to for 3 months. My give a darn is broken, it's a small forum, when it got sold the original people all migrated to one a member started. But the member is an opinionated jerk and manners are kinda weak on his site so I went back to this one, and I answer new people's questions about bees and keep the lights on when I have time. A personal touch on a forum really helps.
Now the BIG bee forum, one of the first, started in 1999, got sold about 3 months ago, but apparently decent management and I don't think it will die.

Keith I am sorry to hear that because your garden is beautiful and your family is delightful. It will be our loss. Let us know where you land and we will check in and say hello. Some of us are on Facebook.

My e-mail is sharonkwinter@yahoo.com. I would love to e-mail you once in a while to ask your expertise on helping me name some succulents. Please e-mail me if that is OK with you.

I only rejoined because of this group and Fireside. I am so busy with Vern, that I do not post much but I do lurk everyday.

Vegas is having a wind storm today with temps in the high 80s. That is the kiss of death for rose and iris blooms. About a week away from full bloom. Usually every year when they are in full bloom a big wind storm comes through and makes havoc with the blooms. I bought 2 tomato plants last Thursday but still not in the ground. This will be the first year I do not have a tomato garden.

Of course, the pine trees next door are in full seed and my whole landscape and driveway looks like a carpet of pine seeds.

Later guys. Sharon (today's amaryllis blooms. Same stalk, different side.

When the storm is headed here during iris season, I cut my full blooms and crush the cut stem with a case knife then put a big vase on my table. By crushing an inch or 2 of stem they will take up enough water for the buds to open that are down below that full bloom.

I went ahead and paid for a year, someone paid 3 months for me in December when I was broke, and I am grateful, so I stayed. Friends are good to have. I am also on Facebook but my Facebook is less garden more political. I have a membership on NGA but there's a lot of people there I don't know and don't have time to learn who are. Keith, drop someone a line sometime. Sharon is your best bet (I'm flying so fast I can't check email)

Keith, I'm sorry to see you go, you will be missed. Your contributions of photos and knowledge have been delightful, to say the least.

Hope to still hear from you. I'm on NGA also...same name sunkissed. I only get on the tropical and Florida forum, over there.

Well SunKissed, I'm glad you joined us. Nice to have someone to show pictures to, besides my kids.

Gypsi . I watch your pictures , Guess I'm not as social though , sometimes my typing lacks meaning , Only I enjoy you and all ,,

Sharon Nice Amaryllis ,,Seems you and Kitt get the pretties this time of year , here it is still in the 20's at night

Little starts Lillium still sprouting Snapdragons still growing ,
1 A fancy petunia ,
A couple Verbena with a Coneflower in them , oh well fun when time comes to separate


This message was edited Apr 9, 2018 12:21 AM

Thank you Gypsi. :-)

Ju, I'm really enjoying your little seedlings, hope those temps warm up for ya to get outside digging in the dirt.

I'm having a tough time with the squirrels digging my young plants up. I am putting sticks and covers over my pots to ward them off. I'm not doing vegetables this summer, going to do fall/winter crops instead. Since hubby turned 65 this past month we get half off the Florida campgrounds and free in the National parks, so we planned a bit more travel this summer and fall, we have an old motorhome to "glamp" in.

I have lots of milkweed coming up, some salvia, coleus, but the squirrels dug into my Impatiens seeds and I'm pretty sure I lost them all. I'm having better luck with propagating plant cuttings this year, the critters seem to leave those alone.

I will miss you, Keith. Did not know about crushing the stems of cut flowers in bud, Alice. Thanks for that. Also found out what a Mung bean is. This is a beneficial social group. I am going to be gone for two weeks so I will try to catch up when I return. Hugs to all.
( hope you get to enjoy your blooms a little longer, Sharon)
Ju, you are such a sprout maker! Still up and down here ugh.

Thank you sun ,,

Debra , enjoy your time away ,, Some asiatic lilium seeds from you still coming up at random , Not a real good photo .

Basil , petunia , snapdragons , lillium Hemerocallis verbena , echinacea , all started , for later blooms ..

Not as good as Keith's photos but. Azalea, Iris, Bee swarm in tree, bee swarm in blue nuc box, and Tall Queen Elizabeth rose that I started from a cutting January 1, 2002, and survived the removal of a shrub and turks cap that had surrounded it

Cat in a garden cart - Tux likes all forms of box. Red climber Premier rose started from a cutting Jan 1 2002, and moved the bush 3 times, it's still alive, I think that is seed I tossed out not sure which, Crimson Clover with the Tortie (feral I brought out here as a kitten and got fixed), and I'm not sure what kind of red salvia this is. Kids play sink behind it, and a euonymus shrub about to bloom

This message was edited Apr 11, 2018 1:41 PM

Looking good Gypsi ,, still waiting for daffodil blooms here

Wonderin what's goin on with my set of Opalka maters, beans mung and adzuki seem to be doin good outdoors. I really should learn to eat fennel, I guess. I have mints to find a spot for and am getting the ruellia out of ground to replace with lantana today.

getting rid of ruellia is HARD. stuff is popping up all over the lot, seed came in on the wind I guess. Fennel is good to cook with.

I am a little allergic to fennel .

From earlier today
daffodil
White Bunching onion
brown garlic
Cherry blossom
Forsythia