July 4th Gardening…

My Masdevallia Orchids in the hanging wooden pots I made are doing quite well. I replaced the string from the two of the pots where hanging on with much stronger galvanized wire.

The flowers of the Masd. Huayna Picchu and Masd. Ruby Slippers ‘Baby’ continue to bloom…

I see a new Masd. Huayna Picchu flower spike forming. It’s interesting how many tiny spots there are on the flower and the flower spike.

I took dead leaves off Masd. Red Panda, but I noticed that it has new growth.

Told my Mom that as one of my Orchid flower matures, the bottom petals cross over. She replied, “just like what I do in my exercises.

I divided the Dragon Fruit Cactus and potted it up into a larger terra cotta pot. Hopefully, it’ll continue to grow larger.

I noticed that the Euphorbia platyclada has tiny little dark yellow blooms, which are not noticable until you really look at it closely.

On the opposite end, the Rebutia krainziana is putting up very noticeable yellow blooms. This is the second round of blooms for this cactus this year.

I noticed that the two Japanese Long Purple Eggplants both have fruits. One has three and the other just one… but they both continue to have flowers, even though they are still just about a foot tall. I hope they grow taller.

I planted two more Coleus pots today. In one pot that I found the Plectranthus argentatus ‘Longwood Silver’ in, I planted a big dark maroon leafed Coleus with no name.

In another pot, I planted:
Coleus ‘Sedona’
Coleus ‘Electric Lime’
Coleus ‘Mariposa’

For some reason, some of the leaves on the Tomato ‘Rutger’s Select’ are burning from the sun, but the other Tomatoes next to it are fine. I hope that they’ll be okay and just keep growing.

I harvested some seeds from a plant I purchased from Annie’s Annuals, but I can’t remember what it is called… something Tips… I’ll have to look it up…

New African Violet Baby + First Coleus Pots…

I finally see a sprout emerging from the African Violet (Variegated) Folia cutting I planted on May 13 (about 29 days ago).

Variegated African Violet Baby

When I got home from work, I made three Coleus Pots:

Coleus Pot #1: Colorblaze Dark Star, Gay’s Delight and Unknown from Sloat (Yellow Scalloped).

Coleus Pot #2: Unknown from Sloat (Red Autumn-like), Wizard Jade, Wizard Coral Sunrise and Wizard Scarlet? (Red Yellow-edge).

Coleus Pot #3: Radical Wonder, Colorblaze Royal Glissade and Rudy Jewels.

A Little Bit of Gardening…

I haven’t been able to work on the garden in a while. Today I was able to do a little bit, today… although I still have to fix up my third vegetable bed for the fall vegetables.

I did my monthly Coleus pot moves, moving some of the pots in the front patio back to the back and some pots from the back to be highlighted in the front. That way everyone gets their time in the spotlight…

The Coleus are in bloom now. I’ve been clipping the flowers back, but for some of the varieties that are past their prime, I’m letting them go.

I did notice that one of them is close to dead. I’ve had trouble with Coleus ‘Fishnet Stockings’ since the spring. For some reason the mealy bugs really like it and have been attacking no matter how much i try to spray them out. So I took some cuttings to see if I can start some off to over-winter.

I also sowed four six packs of Sugar Snap Peas and Dwarf Gray Peas (a Snow Pea)… I was gonna sow some lettuce and chard and other greens, but my Mom wanted to go grocery shopping, go I had to go. I’ll plant those tomorrow.

Planting Til The Sun Goes Down…

Once I got home, I hurried to plant some pots before it got too late. This is what I planted:

Coleus pot #13: (The orange pot) ‘Sedona’, ‘Rustic Orange’ and ‘Copper Splash’
Coleus pot #14: ‘Purple Oak’
Coleus pot #15: ‘Pineapple Prince’ and ‘Pineapple’
Coleus pot #16: ‘Alabama Sunset’
Coleus pot #17: ‘Amora’

and 2 more non-Coleus pots, but I’m spacing and can’t think of the combinations. I’ll check tommorrow…

Telegraph Hill + Lens + Coleus Pots

Today (Tuesday), I ate lunch at my desk, but later it was a little slow, so I decided to walk around. I went up Telegraph Hill again, but it was a lot warmer than my previous hike, so I was panting… I took a couple of photos including a massive clump of that mystery weed I’ve been wanting to ID… I also found it’s flowers. I’ll post those later. I also saw a Passiflora that seemed to just be growing wild on the hillside. I don’t think I got a clear shot of it though.

When I got home I got the package of the Telephoto and Wide-angle Lens… I was very pleased with the company because they also upgraded my shipping to two day air for free and included a free Lens Conversion Adaptor, a free Mini Tripod, a free Lens Cleaner (Solution, Tissue and Cloth), a free Brush/Blower and free Packing Popcorn! All this for the price of two lens which was about $30 each. I think the deserve an A+!!!

There was a little bit of light, so I planted a few Coleus pots.
Coleus pot #11: 2 ‘Kong Scarlet’ cutting (from last year) + 2 ‘Kong Hybrid’ seedlings (seeds I harvested last year)
Coleus pot #12: ‘Joey’ (He deserves a pot of his own)

I noticed that a few of the remaining Coleus (that I haven’t potted up) are quite leggy and infected with more mealy bugs!!! I think I will have to decapitate these and reroot them. I took a look at some of the others that were already potted and I think I will have to do the same.