Rose Restoration Project

My Mom was always fond of her Roses. We have at least eight plants along the front of our house and driveway.

Roses

She would cut these to about a foot from the ground every year, but during the past few years, she wasn’t able to, so they grew bigger and had a lot of branches and limbs dying off. I tried pruning them a bit and taking the dead limbs off, but over the years there were more and I wasn’t as diligent as my Mom was at rose pruning.

Rose #7 before pruning.

After my Mom passed away last year, the Roses were getting more uncontrollable. After going to the Vallejo Garden Club’s rose pruning demonstration this year, I set my mind up to prune our Roses.

As I was pruning, I saw many dead limbs, some of which were pretty large and caused blank areas in the plants. I also noticed that there were lots of rot and decay at the base due to the unswept leaves laying near the base. I cleaned these up as best as I could.

Rose #1 after pruning.

Some of the plants didn’t look like they were going to do well, but they were still alive and I’m hoping they would rebound. There were a couple that I think should be replaced due to the rotting base, but I want to keep my Mom’s Roses, so that gave me an idea… I think I will take cuttings and try to root them to make new plants that I can use in a couple of years to replace the older ones.

Rose 'Talisman' and Rose #1 rooted cuttings.

[Update] Another thought entered my mind. Since we have a couple of volunteer Roses coming up from the roots (I believe they are Rose ‘Dr. Huey’), I can take cuttings of these, root them up and make new Rose Rootstocks to graft the cuttings above onto.

So starts my Rose Restoration Project…

Cuttings

I’ve neglected the Coleus cuttings that I have in water and their roots are now so long.

Potting up rooted Coleus cuttings.

I figured that I needed to plant them as soon as possible so they can grow well… and before they die off.

Potting up rooted Coleus cuttings.

I also found a Pink Geranium on a shopping cart at our local Lowe’s parking lot. It must have broken off when they loaded their plant into their car.

Pink Geranium I found on a shopping cart at our local Lowe's parking lot. It must have broken of when they loaded their plant into their car. #geranium #flower #foundcuttings

Here are all the cutting planted in reused plastic drinking cups.

Potting up Coleus cuttings.

Gardening on the Last Weekend in August

Saturday, I cleaned up the square where I previously planted the four Fun Jen Bok Choy that was attacked by some digging critter.

Four Red Winter Kale Planted

In its place, I planted four Red Winter Kale plants and placed wire edging around it to try to deter whatever critter did the digging last time.

Bok Choy 'Fun Jen' Potted Up

I then decided not to plant some of the other Fen Jen Bok Choy in the square foot garden bed and planted four in a large Daiso pot.

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Tricolor' Potted

The Tricolor Hydrangea that I recently purchased looked like it need to be potted up, so I did that, placing it in a 3-4 gallon pot. I also moved it over to a more shaded area.

My Aunt and Cousins came over and I gave them some Red Giant Mustard and a cutting from both my Santa Barbara Red Dragonfruit and the Dragonfruit that I grew many years ago.

Dragonfruit Progress

Now that I see my old Dragonfruit plant getting bigger and bigger, I really need to figure out where to plant them. I initially thought of planting it by a pole in the front yard, but I noticed the Santa Barbara Dragonfruit in that area gets too much sun and is getting bleached out, so I need to fine a more shaded location.

Unknown Succulent

As I was cleaning an area under our Bosc Pear tree, I noticed a multi-stem succulent that was growing there, it started rooting but was still able to pull it up. I thought it would look nice if it were properly planted into a pot and given more light. So I planted it into a 3 gallon pot. I didn’t know what it was, so I posted a query with a photo of it to Flickr and Instagram and some responded that it was a Sedum praealtum.

I noticed that the Bromeliads that I purchased back in June (2016) are doing well.

Neoregelia 'Lucky ???'

The Aechmea recurvata of them actually has two pups now.

Aechmea recurvata

I moved the Echeveria ‘Chroma’ from the front yard where I thought I may get attached by slugs and snails to the back to join all my other succulents.

Echeveria 'Chroma' Blooming

I took six cuttings from a broken Iresine branch and also potted up a little Spearmint cutting.

Iresine and Spearmint Cuttings

It was already dark Sunday evening and I ended my gardening by potting up a Masdevallia barlaeana ‘Harold’ that was still in a 2-inch pot into a hanging Orchid basket.

Masdevallia barlaeana 'Harold'

Coleus Cuttings…

It’s that time of the year that I dread, when I have to start taking Coleus cuttings. It’s not that I hate doing it, but it takes a while (I think I have over 80 varieties now) and it means that the Coleus in the pots will start to die as it gets colder :(.

This Week's Weather

The weather forecast says that cold weather is coming, so I have to get this done by tomorrow. I started soaking/expanding two trays of jumbo size Jiffy Peat Pellets.

Jumbo size Jiffy Peat Pellets

Each tray (which are really reused plastic drawers) holds 35 peat pellets nicely.

Coleus Cutting

I took photos of each Coleus before taking cuttings. I took extra cuttings of some of my prized ones that I either grew from seed or is hard to find. I totalled 35 cuttings today and have two more batches that I will do tomorrow.

Coleus Cuttings (Batch 1)

My New Method of Overwintering Coleus…

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my ideas on a new method to overwintering my Coleus cuttings.

Super Peat Pellets & NatureWorks PLA Cups

Since then, I received the Super Jiffy Peat Pellets and the NatureWorks PLA 9 oz. drinking cups and lids (which are biodegradable and compostable!!!). The Super Peat Pellets were pretty big compared to the regular Jiffy Peat Pellets that you get at the store.

Super Peat Pellet vs the Regular and Small Jiffy Peat Pellets

First step was to expanded several Super Jiffy Peat Pellets by adding water to the pellets. Continue reading

Second Batch of Coleus Cutting + Jem + Dark Outside…

Cute Twitter Icon by Mirjami Manninen“Taking my 2nd batch of Coleus cuttings to overwinter. Since I took a cutting of Coleus ‘Gem’, I can’t get the theme song to Gem off my mind.”
— Here’s a link to the Jem and the Holograms theme song on YouTube…

“I just went in from gardening outside and looked at the clock… It’s only 5:30pm?…”
— and it was dark already…

@thefrugalgarden That sounds delicious! :: RT Kabocha curry corn soup hits the spot.”
I have to search for this recipe…

2009 Coleus Rescue Project + First Italian Plum…

Starting the 2009 Coleus Rescue Project

My Coleus cuttings from 2009 have been severely neglected, I assumed they were all dead, but many survived. I will they to recut them and make new cuttings. Hopefully, they’ll survive.

I’ll followup with the survivor list…

Picked the first fruit from our big Italian Plum tree… and it was so good!… Still crunchy, but sweet with a slight tang.

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.