Gardenia

The gardenia houseplant I started from seed a year or 2 ago has finally bloomed. I squealed like a little girl when i saw the first bloom from my kitchen window. It was ridiculous.

Oddly shaped strawberries

I had some strawberries in my garden, right in the ground, no special treatment and some of them look lumpy and odd. I think it had something to do with poor pollination or weather conditions, not sure which. I went ahead and uprooted them and placed them into hanging pots with about a 1:1 mix of sand and garden soil (which is pretty much all composted stuffs). They like sandy, acidic conditions and nice drainage so I think the hanging pots will work great. Also, when the berries grow they won't be sitting on wet soil so they should fair better. I'm sure they would have been just fine to eat, but i pulled them anyway.

I also deadheaded my Moondance rosebush today and figured since I took such a huge chunk of stem off I would try to root the cuttings. I've gotten it to work before so why not try again. Its in a mix of 2:1 vermiculite to seed starting mix and the stems were cut at an angle just below a node and dusted with hormone rooting powder. I'm hoping that will do the trick.

They're going to sit on my north facing windowsill along with some Coleus i took cuttings of and some Larkspur, Bird of Paradise and Orange Jasmine seeds I put in little paper pots.

Both the Orange Jasmine and Bird of Paradise were soaked in water for like a day and a half. I nicked (well, filed) the Paradise seed too like is recommended. I did not however put in the fridge for a week b/c i was just too impatient. If it won't germinate I'll add that step in there next time. :) Orange Jasmine seeds floated at first but after soaking so long they sank. Read that a floating seed doesn't necessarily mean it's not viable but only time will tell.

cicada

Random Cicada exoskeleton spotting. Disgusting looking yet interesting.