Just for fun:
If you have more than 40, you’re spoiled and should be killed.
Ornamental Grass Seedlings
Ornamental Grasses growing in my bedroom.
left: Great Quaking (Briza maxima), right: Blue Fescue (Festuca ovina glauca)
Carex species.
I collected the Carex seeds back in the Summer 2005 and they grew! I have to sow more for my friend who helped me collect them. Here are links to photos of the Carex seeds when I found them: photo 1, photo 2
I Couldn’t Resist!
I couldn’t resist buying these Splitrock today. I’m not sure if it is Pleiospilos species possibly Pleiospilos Nelii. Can anyone confirm?
Below are baby Kalanchoe tubiflora grown from leaflets found on the garden floor of a large home improvement store back in February. I had to save them! They were so tiny when I found them… Now they are about half an inch tall.
Blooming Japanese Giant + Forsythia Cuttings
Although it was not as warm today as yesterday, I took some of my plants outside to start hardening them off and get them under some natural light.
I noticed that one of the Coleus that I just received (Coleus ‘Japanese Giant’) is already starting to bloom. Something tells me that I’ll have to keep a watchful eye on this plant so it doesn’t flower until the end of the season.
I took cuttings from Forsythia branches that one of my coworker had, dipped the cuts in rooting hormone, and placed it in 50/50 potting soil & perlite. I then used clear drinking cups to act as mini greenhouses.
Hopefully in a few year, I’ll have blooms like this.
A Day in the Front Yard (and Our Neighbor’s Backyard)…
Contrary to what the weather-forecaster said, it didn’t rain and was actually a very nice day. I took advantage of sun and did some yard work in the front yard.
Our house is the white one on the right and that’s our front yard. The tan house on the left is the one I’m planning to buy.
I wanted to see how backyard looks after the rains, so I took Kelly (our dog) and my camera and went to our neighbor’s house to check it out. I took more photos and I’ll post those later.
It was filled with weeds and parts of the yard had standing water. Once I buy the house, I think the first thing I have to do is build a drainage canal or something like that. The yard was not as big as I thought it was, but it’s still a good size. Seeing it in person is totally a different experience than seeing photos of it.
I also took advantage of the nice weather and set up a little work area on the grass to plant the Coleus that I ordered. I’m using 18 oz. SoloGrips drinking cups as pots.
It think this might be the first time they got be out under the sun. Until we get warmer weather, I’ll bring them out during the day and back in during the evenings.
A Few Baby Coleus…
Here are a few of my Coleus babies I have growing in my bedroom.
Coleus ‘Twirl-a-whirl’ (Last years “Mama” plant) + (Cuttings and Hybrids)
The larger plant on top (of the above right photo) are cuttings I took from the mama plant on the above left photo. During the winter, it has lost it’s swirling petticoat leaf shape and turned greenish orange. It will most likely return to it’s darker swirling leave once it returns outdoors.
The two cups on the bottom (of the photo above right) contain seedlings from the same mother plant as the above cuttings. Two are almost a pure chartreuse while one is chartreuse with a purplish vain. The one on the bottom right is a kaleidoscope of green, burgundy and reds.
Coleus ‘Dark Star’ (Last years “Mama” plant) + (Hybrids)
Coleus ‘Dark Star’ hybrids grown from seeds harvested from the mama plant on the left.
Coleus ‘Rustic Orange’ (Last years “Mama” plant) + (Cuttings)
This cutting (of the above right photo) barely made it… I had it overwintering at work and it died back to almost nothing. I brought it home, took new cuttings (with leave smaller than half an inch) dipped it in rooting hormone and planted them directly in moist perlite. It has really sprung back to life!
It’ll be interesting to see how all these turn out, especially the hybrids.
First Poppy Blooms + Bigger Columbines
Our first Poppy blooms of the year!!! These measure about 5 inches across.
The Columbines next to the Poppies has gotten a lot bigger this year. This flower is also about 5 inches across.
A view from below
‘The Dirt on Gardening’
As I’m looking through today’s TV schedule, I noticed a new gardening show that premieres today called ‘The Dirt on Gardening‘. It airs tonight at 7:30pm PST (and replays at 10:30pm) on DIY Network (DirecTV channel 230). Looks like it’s a Q&A type of show.