Have a Plan...

April 2014, actually the "after" photo, this is not a bare slate...

July 2013

It is always good to have a plan.  Last year with the Garden Walk looming, I wasn't about to switch it up or around, or make any drastic changes.  Even experienced gardeners will admit, if they are honest, you never know exactly what a growing season may hold and how that impacts well-laid plans of mice and men... and gardeners.

Without any changes, it will like look much like this again this year.

So although I conceived this idea...

Beautiful Plant Images (Totally Random)

Coleus

Giant native penstemon

Golden barberry with daylily

Spring at The Paine, Oshkosh

Allium 'Purple Sensation'

Dogwood 'Golden Shadows'

Iris 'Wine and Roses'

Beautiful Botanical Creatures

This is a collection of pieces of coleus (and geraniums and begonias) saved last fall with the intention of using them as the mother for my bedding coleus. I have found that not every coleus does well over winter in low light. I'm sure it is a function of over-hybridizing. I am starting to have a substantial group of them with incredible foliage that do quite well. Tucked into corners, combined in pots, underplanting my alley border, and bedded out among my hosta, these coleus will add splash of rich color where need most this coming growing season.

Yesterday all these beauties and a dragonwings begonia fell to my propagating shears.

The next three pictures show how the cutting is prepared.

In addition to some beautiful coleus, my seeds are starting to germinate. I used the baggy method, so I spent time today pressing them into individual cells in a 288-count tray.

Baggy methos germinated seed, I think this is algrostemma.

The seed to surely surpass my expectations was the 'Pacific Giants' delphinium.

This delphinium seed was packaged by Livingston Seed Company. I usually have good luck, but this was package was filled with 130 seeds and at Day 10 60 of them have germinated. I think more will, at least half of the remainder, if not more. That would make it the best luck I have had with any delphinium seed. (I have no connection with this company!)

Save Your Favorite Coleus

Clip a 4' to 6" tip of your favorite coleus. Remove the bottom leaves, clip off half the remainder of the leaves. You can use rooting hormone and then stick it in water or directly into a potting mix. Keep you cutting in a sunny window. The goal is to be able to take additional cuttings from this plant in March to start all those great pots and baskets next spring.

Really Pretty Coleus and that Spectacular Begonia 'Bonfire'

The plant with the orange bell-like flowers is begonia 'Bonfire'.



I attempted to keep several starts of my 2010 coleus so I could start cuttings for this year. I used rooting hormone, clipped them to about 1 1/2" to 2", cut off or clipped back half the leaf mass, and stuck them in dirt. They are pretty babies today and very colorful. They'll make great impact in my summer pots.

I always save a number of my nice looking plants every fall. One of the more surprising discoveries happened quite by accident in 2009. I saved one pot with the purple leaved Moses-in-the-boat. I try to grow things as dormant/dry as possible during the winter. The purple Mose can take quite a bit of abuse. I had planted a begonis 'Bonfire' in the same pot that spring. By the beginning of October, the begonia was starting to look pretty dead, so I cut it back to the level of the dirt in the pot. I probably watered the pot four times all winter.



See all those rose colored bumps! My begonia-- "IT'S ALIVE!"

By the beginning of March I fertilized the Moses and started watering it, hoping to get some cuttings rooted by May. A couple weeks go by and I realize the begonia is not dead, simply dormant! Here I thought it was one of the annual begonias, and turns out it is a hybrid between the fibrous and the tuberous varieties.

The root mass has now gone through three summers and two winters. Dormant, the root mass is probably eight inches by 6 inches. During the growing season, it completely filled my 14" pot.! Last year the foliage mass from half the size root was incredible. This year I am considering cutting the thing in half.