Bunch of Plants Purchased and Potted Up…

It started to rain last night and for some reason I felt the need to buy some leafy winter vegetable starts, so I visited Mid City Nursery this afternoon. I didn’t find any leafy vegetables, but I got a six-pack of Walla Walla Sweet Onions which contained about 17 seedlings. I haven’t grew big Onions, so this will be good experience.

I also looked for different colored Carrots and found Blend of Colors Carrot seeds which contains 4 varieties: Cosmic Purple, Lunar White, Solar Yellow and Atomic Red.

I also wanted to try Parsnips, so I got a packet of seeds, but when I got home, I discovered they were not Parnips, but Parsley… actually Hamburg Root Parsley ‘Piestruska’ which seems similar to Parsnips, so these will do. I’m interested in trying them out.

Hmm… This just popped into my head… I just realized that Parsnips kinda sounds like a combination or Parsley and Turnips. I wonder if that’s how it got the name. Although, I think they are from two different families. I’ll have to look that up.

I then visited our local Lowe’s to get some potting soil. I also purchased:
Wallflower sp. (six-pack)
Calendula ‘Calypso’ (yellow with black centers)
Spinach ‘Bonnie’ (2 four-packs)
Collard ‘Georgia Hybrid’ (four-pack)
Asparagus ‘Jersey Giant’ (3 bare roots)

When I got home I potted up a bunch of seedlings (grown from seeds indoor under grow lights) into newspaper pots. These include:
Mustard ‘Crimson Red’
Pak Choi ‘Purple Choi’
California Poppy ‘Mission Belle’
Japanese Chard ‘Umaina’
Swiss Chard ‘Witerbi Mangold’

The Snap Pea ‘Sugar Ann’ seeds that I soaked are just starting to sprout roots, so I planted those into about 22 newspaper pots.

Lots of Gardening Done Today…

Went to a couple nurseries and big-box home improvement stores looking for 1/4 inch drip irrigation tubing with emitters spaced 6 inches apart. I didn’t find any but got a couple of plants.

New Plants from Mid City Nursery

I got the following from Mid City Nursery:
Celery Folia 6 cell-pack (I’ve never grown Celery, except for the Asian Leaf types)
Red Russian Kale Folia 6 cell-pack
Tree Collard Folia 4 inch pot with 2 plants which I later divided into two pots Flickr
Coleus ‘Dark Star’ Folia
Coleus ‘Big Chief’ Folia

I also bought a bag of Bonsai Mix which I will try making some String Balls planters with.

As I putting things away in the patio, I found a box that contained Gladiolus, Dahlia and Asiatic Lily bulb/tuber/corms that my brother bought at clearance a month or two ago. They were not in good condition, but I thought I would go ahead and plant them just incase I can save them.

Asiatic Lily 'Stargazer'

The plants included:
Asiatic Lily ‘Stargazer’ Folia
Dahlia ‘Heat Wave’ Folia
Gladiolus ‘Wigs Sensation’ Folia
Gladiolus ‘Pastel Mixed’ Folia

Mid City Nursery Purchases…

I stopped by our local nursery, Mid City Nursery to see what Coleus they had in stock. As I was walking by, I could smell something fruity and looked around to see what it was. It was a Banana Shrub (Michelia figo). It smelled really good and as I moved close to the plant to smell it more, an employee came over to me and commented how good it smelled.

I then remembered the Strawberry Tree that I saw in the Vallejo Garden Tour and asked her if they sold it. She was really nice and showed me the ones they had. One was in the shrub section, another was in the young fruit tree and another was in the taller landscape tree. She told me it was related to the Manzanita which explained the red bark. She even showed me one that they had in the demonstration garden that was really big. I asked if she ever tasted it and she said that it didn’t really taste good; it’s kind mealy.

I then look for the Coleus and bought two more:
Coleus ‘Black Dragon’ Folia
Coleus ‘Kong Mosaic’ Folia

Coleus 'Black Dragon' Coleus 'Kong Mosaic'

I also purchased this light yellow Daisy-type flower. When I got home I realized it didn’t have a tag, so I don’t know what it is. The brand is Blooms of Glen Ellen and the bar code reads 7-81282-00002-4. I sent an email to Mid City Nursery asking if they can tell me what it is, but I haven’t gotten a response. [Update] It is a Marguerite Daisy (Argyranthemum frutescens). [Update 2] I went back to the nursery and found the tag. It’s Argyranthemum frutescens ‘Madeira Crested Primrose’ Folia.

Unlabeled Flower

Lotsa Gardening Going On…

My Coleus hunt continues… I went to Mid City Nursery and picked up three more Coleus:
Coleus ‘Henna’
Coleus ‘Dipt in Wine’
Coleus ‘Glennis’

Me and my Mom are clearing Veggie Bed #2. I’m pulling up the old Kale Dwarf Blue Curled and my Mom is gathering up the river rock mulch. I’ll add some compost and potting soil to raise back the soil, then figure out what to plant next. Most likely Tomatoes and Pepper and maybe a Potato.

I planted 4 more Coleus pots today…

Coleus Pot #7:
Coleus ‘Swallowtail’
Coleus ‘Rustic Orange’
Coleus ‘Dipt in Wine’

Coleus Pot #8:
Coleus ‘Chocolate Mint’
Coleus ‘Sunset Strip’
Coleus ‘Snazzy’

Coleus Pot #9:
Coleus ‘Molten Lava’
Coleus ‘Henna’
Coleus ‘Lava Rose’

Coleus Pot #10:
Coleus ‘Florida Sun Jade’
Coleus ‘Indian Summer’
Coleus ‘Glennis’

Sweet Peas in the backyard are pretty much spent so I’m collecting the seedpods and chopping them down…

Working in the garden with a Citronella candle to ward of the mosquitos

My Oriental Limelight Artemisia is growing way to big and overshadowing the Orange Fuz Geranium growing the the same pot, so I cut some of its canes down to make some room for the Geranium to get more light. I also removed a bunch of dead leaves from the bottom part of the Artemisia. I think they’ll be ok for now, but I’ll probably separate them come fall.

I was cutting some of the old Red Texas Star Hibiscus stem off and noticed a couple tiny blue balls in the Mondo Grass growing in the same pot. I think it’s the Mondo Grass seedpod… It really cool, but it’s too dark to take a photo of it right now. I’ll do that tomorrow…

There are currently 4 Red Texas Star Hibiscus growing. These have never bloomed, so I’m wondering if I should pot it up to a bigger pot…

I accidentally knocked over the Euphorbia genoudiana pot, so I potted it up into it’s new permanent home…

Official Start of My Fall/Winter Garden…

I haven’t been gardening much during the summer, but on Saturday, I made a point to get my butt to Mid-City Nursery to see if they had any fall/winter vegetables to plant. They had a lot of variety of cool weather plants and I ended up with three kinds of Kale plants, a White Alpine Strawberry and Brussels Sprouts in my cart.

When I was at the counter, the cashier asked if I found everything okay. I reply yes… then remembered that I wanted a Chilean Guava plant, so I asked if they carried it. She actually knew what it was because she called it Ugni (its genus). She then lead me to the shrubs area and found the plant right away. There was one left and it’s now mine :)

When I got home I took photos of the plants, but I haven’t uploaded them to my Mac yet, so those are still to come.

Can’t wait to start planting!!! :)

It was a Busy Gardening Day…

I took a half day off and left work a bit early. I just needed to take care of a lot of things, because I know I won’t have much time this weekend because of another Filipino Fiesta in San Francisco.

Before going home I stopped by Mid-City Nursery and got three plants.
– Coleus ‘Show & Tell?’ (I don’t think the sticker on the container was correct)
– Coleus ‘Burnt Sienna?’ (I’m not sure if the tag on this plant was correct)
– Heuchera ‘Amber Waves’

Coleus 'Show and Tell?'   Coleus 'Burnt Sienna?'

Heuchera ‘Amber Waves’ photo

Scions + Grafting + 2 New Bulbs/Tubers…

Today I had a great gardening-related day.

I drove over to San Francisco for the California Rare Fruit Grower’s 2006 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange.

When I first went in, I was so overwhelmed by the number of bags of scions (cuttings). This was my first time at any gardening function like this and I didn’t know quite what to do… so I told the woman at the door that I’ve never been to anything like this and I asked what do people here.

She explained that you basically go through the tables of bags filled with scions and if you see something you like, take 1 or 2. Then take some tape and label your scion with the name that was on the bag. They had so many varieties of different fruit trees, like apples, pears, asian pears, peaches, asian and european plums, nectarines, pluots, figs, pomegranate, kiwi, grapes, mulberries, persimmons and more.

Their were many group members who were happy to answer your questions. One of they said that even if I didn’t know how to graft trees, there were some scions that can be rooted like the figs, kiwis and pomegranate. At 1pm the had a grafting demonstration, which was very informative. There’s nothing like actually seeing someone do it up close.

I made a flickr set ( link ) with some photos from the event. Clicking many of the photos below will link you there.

In total I got about 25 varieties of fruit scions:

A list of the varieties of scions I got

5 Day Weekend…

Friday, July 1

Today was the start of my 5 day holiday weekend. I had a lot of errands to do so I was only able to do a little bit of maintenance gardening and everything is looking good.

My mom and I went to Mid City Nursery in American Canyon. Even though this nursery is less than 10 minutes away from my house, I’ve never been to it because it closes before I get home from work.

I was very impressed. They had a lot of plants that I normally don’t see in larger garden centers, including some Fuchsias, Coleus and Euphorbias that I liked. I ended up buying 4 plants (I’ll post photos later)

Euphorbia Mozambique
Fuchsia hybrid “Golden Marinka”
Fushsia triphylla “Firecracker”
Coleus “Velvet Lime”

Saturday-Monday, July 2-4

My friend Darwin and I are going to Reno to take a mini vacation and visit my friend Michael. Michael introduced me to Coleus last year and actually gave me my first cutting (unfortunately it didn’t survive). Michael is starting his “Garden Design and Installation” business and I was looking forward to seeing him and his work… So I packed some Coleus I rooted and brought it along with the business cards that I designed for him.

We visited several nurseries and I did buy some plants (I’ll post photos later):

Coleus “Pat Martin”
Coleus “Jade”
Coleus “New Orleans Red”
Coleus “Stained Glassworks Burgundy Wedding Train”
Coleus “Gay’s Delight”
Perilla “Magilla”

Michael also gave me a cute little hypertufa pot that he made planted with a succulent.

Tuesday, July 3

Since this was my last day of the long weekend I wanted to visit the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery again… just to see if they had any new Coleus…. and they did… so I ended up buying five more… I just couldn’t resist.

Coleus “Wild Lime”
Coleus “Wild Lime” (I think this one is mislabeled because it’s different than the previous “Wild Lime”)
Coleus “Exhinition Magma”
Coleus “Rustic Orange”
Coleus “Trailing Rose Frost”

I also noticed another nursery on the way home. So I checked it out and OMG they had a Coleus sale. Buy 3 get one free… So I got four more along with a Euphorbia species. The Coleus were old and already flowering, but I’ll just take cuttings of them and make new plants.

Coleus “Dragon Black”
Coleus “Tabasco”
Coleus “Sunshine Burgundy Sun”
Coleus “Kong Green”

With all these new plants, I stopped by a local store and got a couple of cheap 18 inch pots. I also got Mondo Grass Ophiopogon and “found” some detached baby succulents.

Once home, I did major potting. All in all, I potted 5 succulents, a hanging Fuchsia pot and 3 large pots with Coleus.

I’m sleepy, so that’s it for now… I’ll post some pictures soon…

[edited June 8, 2005: Added missing plant names]