Hi Gardeners
 |
| Teasel |
Well, you may have noticed I skipped a week with the weekly
blogs. It was a crazy week last week with our roof getting redone. I planned
the job to be done after my plants had gone dormant outside so there would be
less damage to them but there were still problems. Because of covid precautions
and because it was cold, I wasn’t outside much to observe what the roofers were
doing. Neither was my husband.
I am a person who leaves the leaves and plant debris on the
garden until spring. But on the day the roofers were cleaning up I popped
outside and saw one young guy enthusiastically finishing up the raking out all
the leaves and other cover from the front garden. “Look how nice I cleaned up your gardens” he
said with a big smile. What could I say? It does look neat and tidy.
The leaves were already in the dumpster and he thought he
was doing me a favor. I suppose there may have been some roof debris in there
too, although they had tarps down all over. What I didn’t realize until later
was that he had also taken it upon himself to toss out some of the old timbers
that edged the garden. Yes, some were rotting on the underside and needed
replacing but still…
But the worst thing was when they broke a window on the
porch when a ladder slipped. It was an accident. But I have a lot of plants on that porch
which can survive cool dormancy. The porch rarely goes below forty degrees even
if its not heated. But with cold air pouring in it was getting much colder. It
was evening, they cleaned up the glass and helped me tape a piece of cardboard
over the window. One guy took out the glass frame and said he’d get it
replaced. That was a week ago- and I still have cardboard on the window.
I had to move the huge pot of elephant ears inside- it did
get some cold damage, but I think it will survive. Also, the purple taro and a few other things
had to be moved inside. The geraniums and other things out there seem to be ok
but (don’t tell my husband) I have been cracking the door going from the house
to the porch at night.
My roses don’t seem to be damaged much in the front garden,
even though the guys took the heavy-duty cages I put around them to protect
them and put them in the lawn. They then put them back before they left, but on
other plants. We’ll see in spring how things come up.
The roof had to be done and sometimes you must make
trade-offs. I’m sure the roofers weren’t
totally happy working around all the obstacles here- like the handicap ramp and
gardens all around the house. The worse thing is that there is still work to be
done on the soffits and trim.
Today we are at least getting a little weak sun. What I hate
about Michigan winters is days and days of dark, dreary weather. My windows
full of plants and bright grow lights help, but it’s still depressing. I do
have plants in bloom too, gerbera daisies this week and ivy geranium, plus
hibiscus, fuchsia, begonias, Christmas cacti, and streptocarpus.
I have a braided hibiscus tree that I had to put in my bedroom
this year because of space limitations. I was worried that the little natural
light it would get there and the grow light supplement, wouldn’t be enough for
it, but it is thriving and loaded with blooms. It looks better than it did
outside this summer. You just never know.
The end of the natural year is almost here. On the 21st
we have winter solstice. That’s the shortest day of the year, technically.
After that the sun begins to climb in the sky again and nights start to
shorten.
Winter solstice is probably the first event that our
ancestors celebrated. Our ancestors felt great relief when they could determine
that that the suns cycle was reversing. The ancients knew that the sun was the
key to life. At winter solstice it has been resurrected or reborn. When the sun
“turned and began to come back” it was a signal that life would continue. This has
always been a time for great celebration.
This year we have great reason to celebrate solstice, because
we have now received a signal that life may return to normal here for us too.
We have a covid vaccine. At ancient solstice celebrations symbols of the past year’s
worries and problems were burned in a fire of oak wood. Wishes were made for
better times in the new year.
2020 is certainly a year most of us would like to burn away.
Maybe everyone should have a symbolic bonfire – outside with social distancing.
Let us all hope for a better 2021 as the
new natural year begins.
Spring
bulbs popping up early
People are writing me to ask about their spring blooming
bulbs popping up early. Mine are showing above ground too. Our erratic cold,
then warm weather is responsible. Actually, this isn’t uncommon for spring
blooming bulbs.
The bulbs will be fine unless the weather gets so warm that
they have visible buds showing. Since the length of daylight also affects bloom
time to some extent, most bulbs won’t proceed to buds above ground until a
little later. Warmth in early March is probably more harmful than it is
now.
Don’t worry about the bulb foliage peeking above ground now.
You can cover them lightly with mulch if you like. Snow will probably cover
them soon enough, but if that doesn’t happen, I’m fine with it.
Make sure
to buy seeds early this year
If you remember last spring, people suddenly had a big
interest in gardening because of the covid shut down and seeds quickly became
scarce. Some seed companies had to close, and some had employee shortages. No
one knows what will happen for sure this spring, but I expect there will still
be an increased interest in buying seeds.
Seed catalogs are already arriving at my house and by January
most companies will be ready to take orders for 2021. Gardeners should browse
those seed offerings early and place their orders quickly if they want certain
varieties of seeds. Don’t be disappointed.
You may also want to order plants early, but sometimes this
doesn’t help much as orders of plants get sent to the areas where the weather
is nice enough to plant them first, and if you are in a lower planting zone,
things run out before they get to you. Since few companies charge you now
before shipping, they don’t lose anything by filling those requests from warmer
zones first even though you may have ordered before someone in a warmer zone. Still
if you want something badly I’d order early.
Keep that
Christmas tree fresh
If you bought a real tree this year- and in many places
there has been a big increase in sales of real trees, you shouldn’t be bringing
it inside until right about now, 7-10 days before Christmas. Store it outside
in a cool place until you bring it in.
Before setting the tree up, make a new cut across the trunk
bottom, about 2 inches thick. Then promptly place the trunk in lukewarm water. Making
a new cut opens up the trunk cells again so they can take up water. They tend
to seal closed after being cut and stored.
Make sure your real tree always has water. Don’t add things
to the water like sugar or pennies. It isn’t needed and won’t help. Just make
sure the cut surface of the trunk is always below water.
Keep fresh trees away from heat sources. Never use candles
on them or have them around open flames. Discard the tree soon after Christmas
for safety. You can cut it up and add it to your compost pile or use the
branches to protect other plants in the garden. Some communities have a day
after Christmas when they pick up fresh trees for recycling.
Sweetheart
of a plant scam
A really common “scam” right now is the sweetheart hoya, (Hoya
kerrii) a hoya that has leaves shaped like a heart. It’s also sold as
Valentine hoya. (And it is a hot seller in big box stores around Valentine’s
day.) There is a plain green and a variegated variety. You see these cute heart
shaped leaves in little pots for sale. You are told or led to believe the leaf
is a rooted cutting about to become a plant.
Hoya kerrii is a vining plant with leaves shaped like
a heart. If they are getting enough light the leaves are light green or green
with white or yellow variegation. The plants are pretty, easy to keep as a
houseplant and after a couple years may give you beautiful star shaped white
flowers that are pleasantly fragrant.
But here’s the scam. Growers pluck the heart shaped leaves
off the plant. Each leaf is pushed into a little pot, usually a tiny, cute pot,
full of potting medium and sold as a plant. The vast majority of those sold
never become a plant. If they are taken care of correctly that single leaf can
live a long time, yet never become a vine, always remaining one lonely little
leaf.
To successfully propagate sweetheart hoya from a leaf, the
leaf needs a bit of the stem, along with a node, sometimes called a heel. A
node is the place on a stem where new growth can start, it’s where the leaf
stem joins the main stem. Without a node the hoya leaf never becomes a plant.
Sometimes a gardener gets lucky and their leaf does have a
node, although even with a node it can take months for a vine to get started.
Usually however, the new gardener gets tired of the single boring leaf and
neglects the plant until it dies.
If you have one of these leaves in a pot, gently take it out
of the pot and wash away any soil. Look for a flat piece of stem attached to
the leaf stem, hopefully with what looks like a bud popping up. Even with a bud
node, Sweetheart hoya takes weeks to even begin growing and conditions have to
be just right. It takes years to get a plant with a stem and many leaves.
If you don’t see a node/bud your leaf may survive for a long
time. It’s up to you whether you want to
keep it or not. Put it back in its tiny pot, give it good light but water it
sparingly, too much water will rot the leaf.
If it does have a bud repot it in a pot only slightly bigger
than it was in. It needs a succulent type soil, very well-draining. You can mix
2 parts regular potting soil with 1 part perlite or bark chips. Water
carefully, soil should dry slightly between watering, but don’t let it get too
dry. When you see new growth start, lightly fertilize it. Make sure it’s in a
bright window, east, west or south facing, or under a grow light. Without
strong light growth will be very slow.
If you like this plant buy an actual plant, one with stems
and several leaves instead of a single leaf. It’s a fairly slow grower but easy
to care for houseplant. They shouldn’t be hard to find in houseplant selling
shops/catalogs and aren’t expensive. You may be able to get a small plant for
the price of that single novelty leaf.
Are
purple poinsettias real?
Another scam on the market this time of year are the purple
and blue poinsettias. There are many natural colors of poinsettias on the
market now other than red, but purple and blue, and sometimes other odd colors,
are achieved by dye. A few days before the plants are to be shipped to stores,
light colored poinsettias are sprayed with dye. The dye is absorbed into the
leaf cells and becomes very difficult to distinguish from the natural leaf.
Sometimes leaves are sprayed with alcohol after the dye to
create blotches of white or a lighter color. And then glitter may also be
applied, although most people can recognize that glitter isn’t natural to
poinsettias.
Many people will swear up and down that their blue or purple
poinsettia is natural and not dyed. But if you can keep the plant alive and
growing it will soon become apparent. The new bracts at the top of the plant
will have the natural color of the plant. Usually this is cream or white, sometimes
its pink or even red. (The colored parts of the plant are actually leaf bracts,
not flower petals.) Of course, the main leaves of the plant are green.
 |
| These blue poinsettias are dyed |
Sometimes the contrast of the natural and dyed bracts is
very pretty. Eventually however the purple or blue color of plants is replaced
by natural green with top bracts of a natural poinsettia color. If you like
purple or blue colored poinsettias go ahead and buy them for your holiday
decorating, just realize the color is temporary.
But not all poinsettias that are not red are fakes. White,
pink and various shades of red from burgundy to light red are all real plant
colors. So are cream, yellow and chartreuse green flower bracts although these
aren’t common. Poinsettias with blotches and spots or different colored leaf
edges can also be natural variegations.
There are over a hundred named cultivars of poinsettia. Most of the time you won’t see a name tag on
store plants but if you are looking for specific colors other than red, that
are natural, here are some varieties you might look for.
‘Polar Bear’ is
white with beautiful green veins. ‘White
Glitter’ is red with white flecks. ‘Ice Crystal’ is white with red
edges. ‘Picasso’ is red with cream
streaking. ‘Maren’ is peach
colored. ‘Ice Punch’ is bright pink with cream centers. ‘Christmas Lights’ is a bright true
pink. ‘Luv U Soft Pink’ has deep pink
veins against a pale pink bract, ‘Christmas Feelings Red Cinnamon’ has
deep pink bracts with red flecks, ‘Envy’ has chartreuse green bracts.
With the right care poinsettias can be kept alive for many
years. They probably won’t be as colorful as the year you bought them, but you
can get some color to develop again. For an article on how to keep your
poinsettia alive after Christmas click here.
https://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/if-you-got-poinsettia-for-christmas-you.html
Succulent
scams
Succulents are a big fad in the plant world right now and
people are trying to cash in on the trend. Succulents are hyped as easy to care
for and some are, but not every succulent is suitable for every home.
Succulents are comprised of plants from a number of species and have many
different characteristics and needs.
Succulents are often sold as cuttings. Some succulent cuttings
do root easily, but others do not. (See
the sweetheart hoya information above.) And if the seller is advertising
plants, you should not receive cuttings. Cuttings are not plants. They are
parts of plants or prospective plants. Plants should have roots.
Often small plants from a reputable seller are as cheap as
cuttings that some sellers offer. Cuttings are actually more difficult to ship
than a small plant and because they are often being sold by inexperienced or
uncaring sellers, they arrive smashed, frozen or severely wilted. And plants
are more likely to get off to a good start than cuttings.
Buy rooted plants whenever possible. Remember you get what
you pay for. Cuttings are rarely guaranteed to root and plants from a good
company usually, at the least, guarantee that you will receive a healthy plant.
And when you get those tiny pots of succulents, check to see that you actually received
a plant and not a cutting stuffed in a pot by slipping it out of the pot and
looking. Plants have roots.
I am seeing this a lot with succulents. The advertisement
says a collection of six succulents. But
it doesn’t specify six different succulents. So, the buyer gets 5 aloe plants
and 1 string of pearls. Worse, you get 5 tiny “pearls” and an unrooted aloe
pup. Before you buy know whether you are getting cuttings or rooted plants. And ads for collections and assortments
should specify if you will get just whatever the seller wants to send you or if
you will get a certain number of different species.
A reputable seller of succulents will have each plant
labeled with both the common and scientific name. They won’t simply be labeled “succulent.”
This allows you to look up the proper care of the plant. You may want to look
up pictures of the species you ordered and see if that’s what you got too.
There are many sellers of succulents simply cashing in on the fad and they know
little about the plants they are selling and assume you won’t know anything either.
Before you order any succulent plant look up it’s needs and
make sure you can provide the right environment. Some succulents require bright
light, like a south or west windowsill or a grow light. Others will burn in
those exposures. Some require almost no watering, and some require fairly frequent
watering. Some succulents do not make good houseplants.
The gift of light we thankfully take
But not shall it be alone for our sake
The more we give light
The One to the other
It shines and it spreads and it glows
still further
Until every spark by friends set aflame
Until every heart with joy to proclaim
In the depths of our souls a shining
sun flames
-
Unknown-
Kim Willis
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