Bulbs

On Nov 11th I decided to plant some Hyacinth, Freesia, Daffodil and Ranunculus bulbs.

Ranunculus was potted up and put it outside but only a small set of them have come up... I think the pot didn't have adaquate drainage so the bulbs probably rotted with the sparatic heavy rain we've gotten. Everything is a learning experience.

Side exposed to light

The Hyacinth and Freesia are another story. Planted them in vases with water and they've rooted well. One thing i noted is that when they say that a plant requires dark, they really mean it. My Hyacinth bulb was in dark in a room but i think i left the door ajar and the front side was exposed to light. Consequently, the light exposed side did not root or was retarded.

All Dark conditions

Freesia roots

Freesia are growing like little champs in my windowsill. I couldn't find vases small enough to hold them so i started them in Erlenmeyer flasks, sad i know. But it worked and I went out and bought some gravel today and i'm gonna move them into a nice big bowl.

Freesia ( 1 month in )

Hyacinth left, Daffodil right

The Daffodil has rooted well in water and one is starting to shoot out of the bulb.

Due to the unmercifully hot, dry conditions and tight water regulations here in Texas (we've had several major wildfires) my gardening has grinded to almost a halt. But I have done a few things...

Saw in a book that you can grow / propagate a pineapple extremely easily. All you do is:
    1. Cut the top off with about and inch or so left of the actual fruit attached
    2. put it in some dirt.
Yeah, it's that simple. And mine seems to be doing fine. I started it a month or so ago and its already forming new leaves. I don't know if anything will actually become of it, but its a fun little experiment that really had nothing to lose. :)






I have seen that Bougainvillaea love hot dry conditions and if i remember correctly can tolerate cramped spaces (like pots) and poor soil conditions. Plus, if I recall, they are easy to propagate from cuttings. They are the perfect southern plant. So i ordered 2 of them (orange and yellow) from a place called Bigbadflower.com along with a pink mandevilla. I was a bit worried about placing the order seeing as though i had never ordered plant plants from anyone (only seeds) but i was suprised that they came very well shipped and looked to be in very healthy condition. Very small plant-lings but the price was fairly cheap as well, so I can't complain.



I also have a hibiscus that i propagated from a cutting off one of my bushes that has actually taken in this horrible drought we've been having. Key to propagation i've learned is to put them in a semi-shady spot while they're rooting. Last time I tried i blasted them in full sun and they wilted like nothing. Made a mix of 1:1 perilite and potting mix and put it in a shady spot and presto, new leaves all over the place. I guess I CAN learn from my mistakes (sometimes ;) )


I wanted to try carrots this year in a fall crop but decided that I didn't have a good set up for it and don't have the time while taking Fluid Mechanics, Thermo 2 and Numerical Methods. Studying engineering means you basically have no life. I should have taken up like communications or something if I actually wanted spare time apart from studies... :(

Zinna root in water?

I had no idea this happened. No wonder the flowers were lasting so long! they were in there making a new home for themselves, getting all acquainted like and whatnot.

all i did was put them in there with water and a bit of liquid plant food and then placed them in a sunny, north window. Pretty neat. I was amazed. They are one of my favorite cut flowers now so i'll have to grow plenty next time i sow.

 I absolutely love the color of the okra flowers. Nature always does it right.

 since the dry spell we've been having and the almost absolute neglect in taking care of my plants over the summer, the okra leaves have grown mis-shapen. Mutated okra leaves... I'm so horrible.
 

And these little anole fellows are everywhere. every time i go to water something (which is rare now) i see these little guys. They make me happy for some reason. I used to catch them as a kid and i would name every one of them Zelda - strange, i know.

 And my Canna leaves are almost all showing all these yellow spots.

Read that Canna often suffer from rust and yellow mosaic virus, but I dont think either of those are the reason.


My best guess is a nitrogen deficiency, so i'll fertilize with a high N content fertilizer and see if that helps at all.

 the Coleus has put on some blooms despite almost complete lack of care. Again, i'm a horrible plant mom lately... maybe i'll get at least a few seeds off it for next time.

and i got 2 of the hibiscus to root from cuttings, woohoo. I used a 1:1 mix of vermiculite and potting mix to root them with some powder rooting hormone. left them in a semishade spot on the porch and they did fine. I learned from the last time when i left them in blazing sun and they all but caught on fire.

Not gardening related i know, i'll have to be forgiven but....

I just finished this amigurumi ballerina hello kitty and she's just too adorable not to post. Followed some online directions and she came out fantastic.

I have to find some cute little deserving little girl to give it to. :)

 tomatoes have been ripening like crazy. Those 3 bushes have been producing way faster than we can consume them all.

Which wouldn't be a problem because i can just give them to people all day long. who wouldn't like fresh, free, organic tomatoes right?

 Well, that would be a good plan except that the tomatoes have these small yellow spots all over the face of them.

The small yellow spots on the tomatoes are caused by brown stinkbugs that i've seen around the yard. The term more commonly used is "cloudy spot". Its annoying b/c they seem to have hit every single tomato, leaving none sans spots.

They're pretty much harmless and can be eaten but the aesthetic damage leaves them a bit less appealing... :(

And this is the reason they call it cloudy spot right here. When the thin skin is pulled back a white "cloudy" spot is left behind where the stinkbug was feeding. Highly annoying and hard to control.

Thinking of using sevin dust but it's banned in the UK among other places so i am very apprehensive about using it. Literature says that it does not penetrate plant tissue, but they had to have banned it in the UK for some reason. I know that it (carbaryl, AKA sevin) can be used to make MIC that was the main cause of the plant disaster in Bhopal (killing thousands), so maybe that was a big factor in banning it...? not sure but i'll have to look further into it before i use it.

NPIC pesticide fact sheet here

Found out why my little balsam seeds were producing cotyledons inside the pod. Turns out most frequently that sprouting while still inside the pod is a result of too much rainfall or moist conditions.

Now, with the rainfall we HAVEN'T been getting here in houston, one would sit and scratch their head about how that could be the cause... but, as i previously thought, that bed is not draining as well as it should and as a result i think that aided in not only killing the rose bushes that were planted there but  caused the too-moist conditions that confused the seeds into thinking it was time to germinate.

Also read that keeping seed in plastic bags or plastic containers where moisture cannot escape will also cause them to germinate prematurely. Seems seed must be absolutely dry before putting it in any moisture barricaded vessel of any kind.

a nice pdf file of a research study conducted my Mississippi State can be found here for a bit more info, and other sites seem to confirm the heavy rainfall (moisture) theory as well.

Snakes in the garden can be a huge problem, especially with the dry weather we've been having. The snakes all come out to where we have watered. Hey, can't blame them for trying to survive, right? Well i too and sorta fond of living and not being bitten by some poisonous snake. I myself ran into a black rat snake that was totally harmless but we killed it b/c we thought it was a water moccasin. My dad felt bad for a week.

So, I found a nice little article from a Dave's Garden writer that gives a really good guide to poisonous (and non-poisonous) snakes for North America. Its loaded with pictures too! Check it out


Do you know which one is poisonous?