Mystery solved

image from http://gstuff.co.nz

Found out today from dad's friend that the seeds are Mirabilis jalapa or more commonly "4 o'clock" flowers. I looked the seeds up online and they are practically the same as the ones i have. They can be used in xeriscaping, which is fantastic in case i forget to water them and they bloom in the summer. ...so i missed my opportunity to see them this season. I have no idea what will become of the ones i planted just now but i shouldn't have a problem if i plant them in early spring.

They're like a mix between the datura metel and my hibiscus. They should be a good fit to the little plant gang I've been accumulating.

Notes for spring:
Light: Four o'clocks do best in full sun, but also perform well in partial shade. 
Propagation: Plant seeds in early spring or divide tubers any time. If you soak the large black seeds in water overnight before planting they will germinate quicker. If you get one that you like especially, you can dig up the tuber at the end of the season and replant it next spring. Four o'clocks will self seed. The large, elongate tubers make it difficult to transplant very large specimens.

Mystery seeds

A friend of my dad's gave him some seeds to give to me that are supposed to produce these "big beautiful purple flowers". I asked Dad when he gave them to me, "well what is it?" Only to get a response of "I don't know, just plant them and see". great. I'm thinking, well ok, his friend must have gotten them from his own garden so they must have just now dropped seeds i'm thinking, right? so in nature they would be hitting the ground about this time and plants know when to do all this seed dropping business so maybe i'm in the clear to plant them now. so i planted only 6 of them and reserved another 6 or so for after the winter season when the weather starts to warm up again. I kinda don't want to ask what they are just so i can be surprised, but it would be nice to know so i knew when to plant and what water and light conditions they like...

Oh, and the datura vine is putting out flower buds! yea! about 4 so far in its first year. i can't wait till they open. i will defiantly post pics of them. My dad is so fascinated that the vine stems are almost completely black. he actually goes and points it out to people the come over, saying "look how black it is, weird huh?" And yes, they are coming into bloom from the 3L SIP container and nothing else. I should have started the new seeds in those too, but i didn't have any prepared at hand. I'll make sure to when i sow the next batch tho.

Fall is acually bearing fruit

Went out this morning to water the plants that i really had no hopes for and found that the sweet 100 is actually putting on fruit. My first season was so bad for tomatoes; they put out flowers but very few actually bore any fruit. With it getting cold soon i doubt that it will produce for very long but they're still fun to have around just as an experiment. Like a lot of things in life, i don't expect them to last forever... sigh...

The jalapeños are going too, just 2 so far. And i planted some black seed simpson lettuce too, just one row but maybe i'll do successive plantings every few weeks so i'll have plenty.

sweet 100

jalapeño

And the angel trumpet and datura from seeds have really done well so far. Its kinda neat to know how such a tiny little seed becomes a total plant. maybe i should have got into bio instead of chem :) the vine is in a SIP planter and i have absolutely no problems with it, it never wilts from lack of watering. the angel trumpet though wilts easily if i dont watch it close. i'm gonna have to make a big SIP container for it out of a tote or something... oh and i have some carnations that i started in a pot a while back that i treated like total crap (forgot to water, left in blazing sun, the works) and they're STILL putting on buds and going to bloom. I almost just tumped out the whole pot a month ago, glad i didn't.

Angel trumpet

Datura vine

Completely off subject

I recently taught myself how to knit since a friend of mine is about to have her first little kiddo soon and i thought i would post a pic of the little cardigan i made for her. This is what i've been doing while i should have been studying for my chem processes class :) it's a free pattern off of lionbrand.com. and it's maroon b/c i'm sick of looking at pink yarn after doing the baby blanket.

front                                                                                                                       back

and no, it's not meant to fit someone the size of the little bear i have it on, but it was what happened to be closest to put it on. i made her the obligatory booties, cap and blanket too but for some reason forgot to take pics of them. i'll get them once she's born and sporting them!


She had her baby on 10/2 by the way -  a beautiful, healthy little baby girl

Some Fall Happenings

Random fall notes:

Moved the hosta i bought a while back into a pot with some miracle-gro potting soil. its supposed to shoot up a flower stalk in the fall - it did last time. With the horrible spot its been at i'm doubtful i'll see any pretty lavender flowers from it. I'm ashamed i left it in such poor conditions for so long. The soil in the front of my house is terrible, even after i tried to amend it a bit to improve the drainage. I figure that if i ever want to plant anything decently in my yard that is not a tree, i'm gonna have to make my own soil and fill a huge area with it (maybe put a layer of rocks at the bottom to boot). So i'm going to have to start saving up all the yard material this season. Come on fall, gimme some leaves.

I moved the old veggie bed after i saw that the east facing wall i placed it up against wasn't getting as much sun as I would think vegetables would need. Its now completely out in the open in the middle of my yard, out of most all of the shadows. The hosta got placed in a pot where the bed used to get the least amount of light. Before it was in pretty much full shade. I'll see how the new soil and sun affect it. 

After moving the old bed into the sun I went to the garden center to buy vegetables. Now I planned on getting the stuff that was correct for the season you know, some greens, root variety and whatnot, but even though i know that now is not the best time and i should have done it months ago (july)... i got tomatoes anyway. i know i shouldn't have but i did. Planted one of each: better boy, beefmaster, roma, and sweet 100. I also planted some green jalapeño peppers and mulched them all like i've never mulched before : ) I bought some black seed simpson lettuce seeds too that need to go into the ground asap and i wanted to try carrots this year maybe some radish too, i donno. I'll see what strikes my fancy when i go the the store.

Moved the angel trumpet into a bigger pot as well. It kept losing water too fast and looking a bit wilty on me so i figured it was time. The roots weren't all rootbound to the sides of the pot but they were getting close. I made sure to loosen them a bit before i replanted it just for good measure. He got mulched like crazy too as well as an extra dose for the roses, who have not been looking too fantastic lately but are starting to look a bit better after i did some fertilizing.

Which reminds me of a silly side story... An acquaintance of my dads came over today while i was outside doing plant-related-happenings and motioned at my angel trumpet (that is NOT in bloom) and goes "hey, is that an angel trumpet?" i was very, very surprised to think that anyone my dad would know would have any inkling of knowledge about what variety of plant that was without it bearing flowers yet. Veggies, yeah i could see, but flowering, non-edible stuff no. So i tell him "yeah, it is actually" only to get a reply of "ah man, you know those make you trip out". Sigh... yes, i looked them up after i bought the seeds and wiki did inform me of that, not that i had any plans on hallucinating any time soon. He then proceeds to tell me HOW to do it. He's all like "well alright, look, here's what you do... you take the little new leaves like this... *walks over to the plant and actually points at a leaf* and you boil it and then you drink it like tea. But don't do too much or you'll end up like my buddy that hit it one too many times and died" which, the last part i'm inclined to believe is a total lie, just put in there to jazz up the story a bit. Then he goes on to say, "aw, well what color is it?" and if memory serves me right its white, which i told him and he got super excited about b/c apparently the white ones are supposed to be like the best for uh, brewing i suppose. He even wanted to trade me for a pink one that he's got. I told him i'd give him seeds if and when i got them. 

I just find it a bit funny that he recognized the plant not because it was pretty or interesting but because it had hallucinogenic properties. Fan-freaking-tastic. I didn't bother to tell him that the Datura vine sitting just behind it was just as if not more mind numbingly trippy.Oh, the people my dad knows...