My Christmas Cactus Always Blooms at Thanksgiving

Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera) are readily available in garden centers and big box stores all over the place right now. I love them and they are super easy to grow and propagate.

They come in several colors from white and gold shades to the hot pink pictured above.  The original Christmas Cactus  that this plant came from was purchased at Christmas several years ago. When I got it it was in bud and I enjoyed it all through the holiday season. When it had dropped the very last bud, I put it in a sunny window kept it barely moist and waited until the outside temps were above 60 degrees. I potted it up into a larger pot  and out it went to a shady spot on my porch where it suffered much neglect - intentionally! I watered it when it got wilted or sooner if I remembered.

If you live in a warmer zone than my zone 6B you might get away with keeping yours outside all year. I have to bring mine in before frost. I keep lots of plants over winter in the big sunny windows we built into our art studio and this is where the cactus goes. Within two weeks the buds begin to pop out on the ends of every stem. When I see the first bloom open I put my plant in a showy place in the house . The picture above was made Thanksgiving Day. All my Christmas Cacti have always bloomed on or right after Thanksgiving. They give me much joy!

tiny roots

 

planted back into the pot

When I brought this one in from the studio, One branch was wilted but I noticed roots on all its' leaf joints. I poked a hole in the soil of the pot and pushed the end of that wilted stem into it. It will take root in a few weeks and be a new plant. All one needs to do to make new plants from a Schlumbergera is make cuttings anywhere there is a leaf joint, place the cutting (with or without rooting hormone) into a pot, keep it moist and you will have a new plant in no time at all. If you look closely at your mature plant you will probably see tiny roots growing out of many of the leaves, any of those leaves will root in a pot or tray of soil.

See the little roots here

If you've never grown a Christmas Cactus or you tossed them out in the past because you didn't know what to do with it, now is the time to get started with a new one. I think I might have room for another color myself.








Sheffield Daisies - An Alternative to Chrysanthemums

These pretty flowers have been growing in my shady back yard for several years. I got them at a plant swap and had forgotten what they were. They grow bigger each year but not to the point of being invasive. I looked them up and found they are Sheffield Daisies.  Here is what Ellen Barcel says about them: "Sheffield daisies aren't really daisies at all, but a variety of chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum koreanum. Their delicate pink color really stands out against the more vibrant colors usually associated with autumn. Hardy as far north as zone 5, they are perennials which will come back year after year. They make beautiful cut flowers and are attractive to bees and butterflies. Like Montauk daisies, they tend to be deer resistant. And, yes, they like full sun."


As I mentioned above, mine are happy in mostly shade, They get about 4 hours of sun in the summer. The picture at left was made at 10 AM on October 21. You can see they are still in part shade, I do absolutely nothing to them all year - not even fertilizer.  I plan to root some in my greenhouse this winter. I'll post how that works in the spring. Maybe if I ever get my web site up to sell plants, you can buy some from me.

Intermittent Mist for Rooting Plants

I have not found any plant that I haven’t been able to propagate under intermittent mist. It is the main reason I wanted a greenhouse. Granted, you can make a mist system outdoors but for me, there are too many variables to deal with outside; animals, too much sun or shade, rain and other weather related things.

I used an electronic leaf and a timer to control the mist. I set it to come on a couple of hours after sunrise and go off at least 2 hours before sundown. Wet leaves are susceptible to fungus so you want them dry before dark. We constructed my system using PVC pipe that is permanently in place. There are lots of places on the Internet where you can find instructions for constructing a mist system. I did not buy a kit, everything I needed was at my local hardware store except the mist heads and I purchased then from a greenhouse supply store.

In the following video I show how I make a cutting, use a rooting hormone and place it in my growing trays. These trays are temporary until we finish the bottom heated trays that we will use all winter and beyond. It was summer when this film was made so I didn’t need to worry about bottom heat. By the way, the Cuban Oregano cuttings rooted in 7 days in my 80 - 90 degree greenhouse.

Fall is the Time to Divide - Tips for Dividing your Overgrown Perennials

I received this tip for dividing perennials from Jerry Baker's newsletter. It and other good advice can also be found in his book, Terrific Garden Tonics:

Some flowers are a little too vigorous, and they'll take over the whole backyard if you don't divide 'em. Others grow better after dividing them because you get rid of the old, weak growth that produces puny blooms and attracts pests and diseases. Best of all, dividing is a great way to get loads of new flowers for free!

Early fall is the best season for dividing crowded perennials, so now's the time to start chopping up those overgrown clumps. My Perennial Transplant Tonic will get your new divisions back on their feet without missing a beat.

Mix 1 can of beer, 4 tablespoons of instant tea granules, 2 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid, and 2 gallons of warm water in a bucket. Soak your newly divided perennials in this tonic for about 10 minutes just before replanting them. When you're finished, dribble any leftover tonic around your newly settled divisions to get 'em off to a supercharged start.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I recently had to dig up my entire foundation landscaping because we needed to waterproof our basement. The picture is of my grandson, Tad, helping his daddy Josh (the one who did my foundation repair -Patterson Foundation Services) Sorry, but I had to get that plug in.

It was a good opportunity to divide and move some overgrown plants. I had a large Dawn Clematis vine that I divided into 3 new plants. I put a cup of Epsom Salts mixed with a cup of white sugar into the hole before I replanted the one in the front yard. I had cut it back severely and in 2 weeks it has grown about two and a half feet and has buds on the tips of all the stems! I'm pretty sure it was the Epsom Salts mix that gave it a power boost. I gave one of the vines to my brother-in-law and told him about the Epsom Salts trick and his is growing great too. I put this mix into the planting holes of all the Lilies that I put back in place and not a one shows any signs of stress.

For you folks out there who live in Middle Tennessee, I'll be speaking about plant propagation at the Middle Tennessee Plant Swap on Oct. 17 at Henry Horton State Park. It is a fun event and a chance to get some good plant trades.

Growing and Propagating Coleus

Coleus "Trusty Rusty"

Coleus are easy to grow and care for. They are not hardy above zone 11 but are so easy to overwinter that it is worth having these beautiful plants as part of your landscape or as container plants.

Coleus are grown mostly for their leaves and will get leggy if allowed to bloom. The newer varieties such as Trusty Rusty above and  Tricolor at left rarely bloom or maybe it's because I keep pinching mine back to make them fuller that they don't bloom. All plants can have color variation depending on maturity, fertilizer, temperature and light. For the most part, coleus with red and orange leaves tolerate all day full sun. Too much sun can cause purple-black ones to fade all over or they may scald (have pale burn spots on leaves). And for any color, too much shade can keep all the colors from coming out. I have some in shade and some in part sun and I haven't noticed too much difference in leaf color. See how pretty Coleus are with these Geraniums in a large pot.

 

 

 

Propagating Coleus is easy! I root mine in water but you can also stick cuttings dipped in rooting hormone in a mix of sand and perlite and they root fairly quickly. Add mist and they will root even faster. I prefer rooting cuttings in water because it takes much less room and trouble. I should call this blog The Lazy Gardener! Here is a picture of Coleus that have been in water for about 3 weeks. See all the roots. They are ready to pot up. If you are growing Coleus in water to winter over, I do this often - no soil just water in a sunny window - trim the roots if they get long and stringy. They will tend to rot and ruin your plants. I add a tiny amount of liquid fertilizer to the water if I am keeping them in water over winter. 

 

So don't let the fact that Coleus are tropical and they do not flower keep you from trying this easy care plant. They are fun and easy and beautiful!

 

 



Best Herb Tips Ever

I have grown and sold herb plants, dried and fresh herbs for years. When I received this blog post in my email boxthis week, I knew I needed to share it with my blog readers. This is the best information on growing, using, preserving herbs I've read in a long time. It should be no surprise that it is from my Internet buddy Mike McGroarty from Freeplants.com written by his son, Dustin and no, I don't make any money from referrals!  I hope you learn a bunch from it!

http://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2013/07/how-to-grow-herbs-at-home/

Step by Step Propagating Lesson

I posted this little lesson on the Gardening Forum I belong to and figure there are folks out there who can also benefit from it.

Nearly all the plants I sell in my little nursery are propagated from cuttings that I take from my own plants. I have a mist system set up in my greenhouse where they are rooted and potted up for sale.

The following pictures show how I cut, trimmed and prepared an Oak Leaf  Hydrangea for the mist bed.

1. Here is where I made the cut on my plant. It is below 2 leaf nodes (where the leaves come out of the stem)

2. Here is what the stem looked like before I trimmed off the excess foliage: trimming is important so the plant does not waste energy trying to keep all those leaves alive. It will use it's energy to make roots!

4.Here are all the leaves I cut off . I was able to make two cutting to propagate from that one stem.

5. Now I "wound" the stem by cutting a small amount of the bark away. This helps the plant form roots.

6. Dip the end into rooting hormone. I use Hormodin #2 rooting powder but any hormone you can buy at a garden store will work.

7. Here are the cuttings in my mist system. They should have enough roots to survive in a pot in about 45 days.

 Try it yourself and make lots of free plants! Be sure you don't root any patented plants or the plant police will get you! Seriously, if you get caught there could be fines. Not worth the price of a plant. 

Growing and Propagating Clematis Vines

Among my list of favorite perennial vines, I put Clematis at the top. They are hardy, easy to care for once they are established and with the right varieties, they will provide a long season of blooms and most will rebloom in the fall.

I am writing this blog in the middle of June and I have had Clematis blooming in my yard since March. The show started with my favorite early bloomer “Dawn”. Just look how many flowers were on this ten year old vine that I have moved at least once (from one house to another). Don’t ever buy a house from me with out negotiating the plants! LOL! I left everything once and the new people turned a big dog out in the back yard and he totally destroyed all the plants – never again! I have moved my garden three times now. I hope this house is forever.

About the time Dawn is fading and making the powder puff seed heads, Lady Betty Balfour starts her show followed closely by my summer favorite Jackmanii! This one grows happily in lousy soil at the edge of my back drive – look what a spectacular sight this is! By the way, if you want more blooms, dead head as many of the seed heads as you can. This can be quite a chore on a prolific bloomer but it will encourage your Clematis to bloom more later.

Jackmanii below center

Right now the Earnest Markham is starting to bloom and my Nellie Mosier will soon follow. Of course, the doubles are beautiful although they usually bloom double in the spring and single flowered in the fall.

It takes about three years to establish a Clematis vine. They will bloom the first and second years but the third year will be the start of a full bloom. Trust me, it is worth the wait.

Try to give your Clematis at least 5 or 6 hours of sun a day, mulch them well or under plant with a low growing perennial. They like their heads in the sun and their roots in the shade. Water weekly in the hot dry summer and fertilize as you would any blooming perennial. They are not fussy – I throw some timed release fertilizer on in spring when I see new growth and again mid summer.

There are several schools of thought about pruning the vines. I generally cut mine down to about 18 inches tall after the first hard freeze. If I wait until spring and new growth is there, I can’t bring myself to do it. I don’t prune my Jackmanii although lots of people do. I love the “umbrella" look I get from having all the flowers on top of my trellis.

When I had my greenhouse and an intermittent mist system, I had much success propagating Clematis from soft wood cuttings. It can be done without all that but is rather tricky. I prefer the following method for the average home Gardener who wants a few more plants.

I start with a mature plant. The one in the pictures is a Nellie Mosier. I select a nice long stem, pull it down carefully (they break easily) until it touches the ground. Select a vine long enough to have about three feet on the ground and still be attached to the mother plant. See the first photo below.

Now snip the leaves off where the plant will touch the ground and wound the underside of the vine, wounding means scraping the outer covering of the vine down to the green inside. Once again be careful not to cut through the vine. I use a sharp clean knife for this. You can dust a little rooting hormone on the wound if you wish. Now dig a little channel in the soil and lay your vine, wounded side down, in the channel and cover with soil. Put a stone, brick or anything heavy on top to hold the vine in place and help keep it from drying out. Now the hard part - wait one year - don't even think about moving that rock! After a year, lift the rock and you should have a nice rooted little plant ready to snip away from the original vine and pot up.

A couple of my favorite Clematis suppliers are Walters Gardens and White Flower Farm . A good site for general information on Clematis is Home of Clematis.

Plant Propagation Links and Tricks

I promised my die hard plant swapping friends from the Middle Tennessee Plant Swap last weekend that I would post a follow up on our little propagation discussion. It was so darn cold last Saturday that I couldn't think straight and we all were too cold for any long lecture.

Here are a few links to suppliers of propagation equipment and some of my favorite forums. I'll start with the Plant Propagation on the Garden web forums. It's a good place to post your questions and read what others have posted that may be helpful. Of course our own Tennessee Gardening forum is a good one for folks who are reading this other than the plant swap people.

We talked a lot about Intermittent Mist Systems. Morton's Horticultural Products in Smithville, TN is my favorite local supplier and if you don't want to drive there you can order on line. This is where I purchased my Electronic Leaf to control my mist system. I find a yearly pilgrimage to Smithville and McMinnville well worth the trip. I love to go to Mary's Greenhouse in the spring. Mary actually has about 14 greenhouses full of wonderful plants at great prices.

When I build my next greenhouse I think I will purchase a kit from Farmtek. They have some real nice complete kits that are not too terribly expensive considering all that comes with them.

I don't want to forget Mike McGroarty's web site. His message board is one of the best (you have to enter his site to find it) and you can purchase the Easy plant Propagation book from him or you can find it on Amazon (I bought a used copy).

Here are a few more pictures from the plant swap but the very best ones are from Tngreenthumb and you can find them here.

Seed Starting 101

It’s that time of year again. I’m getting “what do I do now that I have my little seedlings” questions from friends and family. Since I started this blog to share what I’ve learned along the way and hopefully others will chime in via comments, I’m posting how I deal with seed starting and transplanting.

Seed Starting
There are probably as many ways to start seeds as there are kinds of seeds. I will only cover 3 of them here; under lights, winter sowing and direct sowing.
I have an earlier post about winter sowing and will only add a footnote here. My winter sown seeds sprouted at about the same time as the ones that I panicked and started around March 1st under lights in my basement. The pictures here were made on March 14th. Basement ones took from one to two weeks to germinate and honestly, I will probably not do winter sowing next year because the basement is faster and I am impatient. If you don’t have the space and don’t want to look at the light shelves in your house, winter sowing is the way to go.

Under lights: I use the seed starting flats with the plastic “greenhouse” tops. I save these year to year, even the liners that hold the seeds. I wash these out with a mild bleach solution before I store them to keep from spreading fungus, etc. Here is a picture of my shelves that Bill made for me out of PVC pipe. I store it in the basement but you could actually take it apart and store somewhere until you need it again. The plans were from the very first issue of Garden Gate Magazine. If anyone is interested, i might post the plans. I have built a couple of these over the years and they work great. I use cheap shop light fixtures with one warm and one cool spectrum florescent light tubes in each fixture. Hang the lights as close as possible to the sprouts and gradually raise them as the plants grow. I usually take the greenhouse tops off when my plants have one set of true leaves.

Direct sowing: If you have the patience to wait until a couple of weeks before your last frost date, you can sow your seed directly in the garden. Some seeds can only be sown this way. Carrots for instance, don’t transplant very well – read your seed packet for information about this. Cool weather crops like lettuce, spinach, radish, etc. will do well if sown as early as late January or February here in zone 6b. I planted lettuce in big pots on my deck this year in late January and today (March 31) I have pots full of inch tall seedling out there. Again the back of your seed packets will give you all in the information you need for this.

Transplanting
When your seedlings (planted inside or winter sown) have their second pair of true leaves, I will carefully pick them out of the seed trays, A kitchen fork works well for this, and pot them into 3 inch pots. As soon as the weather warms up to around 50 degrees I start hardening them off by placing them outside in a shady place a few hours everyday and after about a week of this, I move them into the sun for a few hours each day. Don’t let them dry out but don’t drown them either. Evenly damp is good. Also, take them in each night in case of a drop in temps below 40 or worse - a surprise frost. As soon as your last frost date – here in Mid Tennessee, it’s April 20, you can plant them in their permanent place in the garden. I have found that my plants do much better if I harden them off. There is much less rick of wilt than if I take them directly from the flats to the garden. I remember my Dad’s tomato plants in their little pots all lined up on the front porch rail every day and setting on the floor inside by the door at night.

Maybe this will help those of you who are first time gardeners or first time seed sowers. Anyone out there with additional information please chime in.

Solve Your Bug Problems withThese Tips

Squash Borer - Gross! 

Last year the squash borers got my squash and the squash bugs got what the borers left! I found the perfect solution in daddy's notes. He said, "Plant radishes with cukes, melons and squash. Mennonites said this would work for borers and bug problems. I did it and had no bug problems! Radishes & Marigolds work wonders for bug's." I'm for sure going to try this this spring.

Dad always tested the germination rate of his seeds. To be sure the seeds were good he would wet paper towels, place a few seeds (be sure to label what they are) on a towel, fold it over the seeds and place in a baggie. Check them in a few days to see if tiny shoots are coming out. If so, you know your seeds are viable. If no sprouts in a week or so buy new seed. Better than planting a garden with seeds that will not germinate.

About Turnips: Papa said Sept 15 was perfect time to plant them in our zone 6B. No bugs by planting them this late. He had best success by planting in rows rather than beds. First harvest was Oct 15. Need to thin the plants and eat the greens in order to get nice turnips later in season.  Harvested good turnips in December and still had turnips to eat after a hard freeze took out the green tops. Roots stayed good in ground even after hard freeze.

rooting in water

My grandma always started her sweet potatoes in the kitchen a month or so before the first of May. They will form roots in water and all you need to do is cut out the plants (each potato will produce several vines) and plant them in your garden. Be sure to till the soil until it is loose and fluffy. I've grown pretty good potatoes by continuing to pile on straw as the vines grow bigger, All I needed to do to harvest was remove the straw!

sweet potato in water

 

 Next week: The Best Gardening Advice Daddy Ever Gave Me!

Sedum are EASY to Propagate!

It was time to move my sedum plants outside for the summer. They were wintering over in the sunny studio window. One was in a fairly large and heavy bowl. For that reason and the fact that I am pretty lazy too, I hadn't picked it up all winter. When I got it out of the window, look what I found! Leaves had fallen off and gone unnoticed. It's a good thing too because I'm sure I would have either tossed them or tried to bury them to root. Left alone on the window sill they had grown baby plants! How simple is that?

Notes from Papa's Garden Journal - Growing Tomatoes

My dad grew the most awesome veggies. He kept a gardening journal and I inherited it when he died several years ago. I ran across the journal the other day and I had forgotten how many good tips were in there. In the next few weeks, I want to share some of them with you.  

This week we will talk about Tomatoes. Papa, as the grandchildren called him, tried all sorts of Tomatoes and here are some of his notes about his favorite varieties:

 

His all time favorite was Early Girl. Dad planted it every year and as it's name implies, he always got the first tomatoes on this plant. this was also the one he took suckers from for late fall crop.

 

Celebrity- Here's what he said about it, "set 6 plants next to Early Girl on 4-27. Both were from plants started from seed indoors on 3-10. Plenty of fruit on both varieties on 7-6. 7-18 giving away tomatoes to anyone who needs them!"

 

Parks Whopper: (I wonder if this one is still available) He planted it in 2000 and got "bunches" of tomatoes according to his journal.

One way he kept us in fresh tomatoes from early summer to late fall (sometimes as late as Christmas) was by rooting some of the sucker branches from the ones planted in the spring, planting them in the garden in mid-summer and these would produce fruit until frost. The tomatoes that still had green fruit on them when the first hard frost was predicted would be pulled up by the roots and the whole vine hung upside down in the barn. We would pick ripe tomatoes off them until Christmas!

Another way to save those green tomatoes is to wrap each one in newspaper, store them in a box in a dark closet and check them weekly for ripe ones. I’ve done this myself and had fresh tomatoes way into winter.

Next week I'll share his notes on growing carrots. We always had carrots way into January from the seeds he planted the pervious year.