Propagation – Page 2

Seed story, beginning of spring (march 26)

Seeds coming up now: Oregon geraniums, Desert Parsley and some Allium, and maybe Gaillardia in pots. Definitely some seedlings out in the yard, maybe gaillardia, Indian Paintbrush, and maybe Woodland Penstemon. Desert Parsley seeds germinate well but seem to be getting eaten out in the yard.

Bought 3 tall Red Ovalleaf huckleberry bushes (4 ft tall and narrow) and transplanted two smaller ones into the south west lower back yard, in an area cleared by removing a maple tree. It gets dappled and indirect sun, and the soil is better and moister than where the two i transplanted were. We have two thriving in a similar environment. Other understory plants put there, some earlier and some recently: several Wild Ginger txs, several bluebell rotundifolia txs, clusters of brodiaea, Fairy bells, Trillium Chloropetalum and Ovatum, Pink Fawn Lily, Kitten tails, Miterwort, Hookers Onion, Prunella, and Loganberry.

Transplanted about half the cluster of Trillium Ovatum in the lower back yard, which I had sown many years ago, maybe six. I transplanted ten bulbs with their three-leave tops into another area, to give the remaining ones a little more room. There are about ten or more left. There are more than germinated the first year or two, and they are of varying maturity. I think some of the seeds are latent or take longer to appear above ground. The cholorpetalum doesn’t seem to do that, I left the 8 or so plants alone.

The lower back yard (west) is getting to be a GROTTO with FERNS (thriving licorice, leather leaf, sword and maiden hair) as well as TRILLIUM, HUCKLEBERRIES and the other ground covers like Wild Ginger. Turns out we don’t have very many pictures of this area, probably because it had never been particularly photogenic, it is a shady slower growing area and we’ve cleared the area relatively recently. But now it is starting to fill in, and a rangy maple taken out (full disclosure, my fault, I kept it low for view), so here are the “before” pics: I may wait for a couple of months for the follow up “during” or “after” shots, as much of it is herbaceous, deciduous and/ or growing still!

BEFORE PIX: circa 2013 or so .

Looking south towards new grotto area (upper right in photo)

Above: The foreground is Vancouvaria and Goats beard coming up…the ‘grotto’ area is in the background. The pic below is taken from the grotto area itself, looking back east.

Still march, more updates

Rufus hummingbirds back, the yard is noisier than ever with those things now. Lots of ducks coming and going in the pond, often four but mostly two now. They don’t seem as skittish this last week, the female walked and rested around the yard, neither flew away when I just walked by. Still no wrens trying out my nesting box – I converted the ‘roosting box’ a couple of weeks ago by inverting the front, so the hole is towards the top. That way there is ventilation (hole in bottom during winter to keep heat in) and some protection for the babies.

The nesting box is hanging by itself now (not sitting in planter), but is in the same spot. Hoping the wrens are comfortable enough to use it here. If not, will move it for the second brood.

Fawn lillies coming up, including the pink, white and off white! Some Leopard lillies and chocolate lillies just poking up. Oh, and my trilliums from seed…..in the back yard are the oldest ones, I can’t remember if they are arlund 4 or 5 years old now, but there are about 6 of them and they are all going to have the three leaves of a more mature seedling. Any flowers??? Can’t tell yet. But the oldest group also looks like they areTRILLIUM CHOLOROPETALUM (Giant Trillium). I’ll have to look that up and see whether I recorded the seed sowing or not. Those trilliums are cool, they have blotchy purple spots on the leaves….the flowers are fragrant and straighter in appearance.

OK, I just looked it all up…..According to my site entries, I apparently sowed some Trillium Chloropetalum seeds in the late summer 2010! That would mean these plants will be 7 years old and should flower this year, even if small. But, is the first winter considered the “first year”, or does the counting start the next spring? I kind of thought they may be only 5 or 6 years old, judging from how many times I remember watching for them to come up…but how time flies! In 2012, I even mentioned that I planted out the T.Chloroptelaum ‘bulbs’ along with the mention of the other propagated seedlings (trilliums take two years to ‘germinate’). Anyway, I also wrote that I planted Trillium Ovatum seeds outside and in pots in 2011, so those would be 6 years old now (and POSSIBLY flower), but the plants coming up don’t look that mature. How is it possible to lose track of plants that grow so slowly??!

March madness – duck saga

I happened upon a BUNCH of ducks in our pond yesterday ….a raft or team of ducks, apparently. They are only called a flock while in flight. I didn’t even see them and FOUR of them flew away. As I approached more, TWO MORE flew away. That makes SIX DUCKS in the pond at the same time, not fighting. Today I scared away four ducks, two at a time. And by scare away I mean simply walk down the steps….these are real ‘fraidy ducks. I think they have become that way because of the growth of the shrubs around the pond…their potential emergency exit isn’t what it used to be. I used to be careful not to get too close but so far this year I couldn’t even walk into the yard without scaring them away. Too bad for them!

Trillium seedlings starting to come up! I think these are from sowings about 4-6 years ago – the one patch showing up has seedlings from two different years. One of this patch had three leaves last year, and at least three of them now look like they are fairly mature looking as they poke up. They typically take 7 years to flower from seed, but can be as soon as 5 depending on the conditions. Exposing seeds to warm conditions early can cause this, maybe it happened naturally. Last year there only a few trillium flowers, maybe they didn’t like those early warm springs we’ve had, so maybe not so good for the flowering as it is for forcing the seedling. And almost no seeds, only the Trillium Chloropetalum produced seeds last year, which will not appear until next year (if they do). Trilliums take two years to appear above ground.

February progress

Shooting stars (pulchellum, or few flowered) are starting to come up this last week (feb ~10). They do NOT look like this yet, however!- at this point in time they have barely poked out of the ground. This is quite a late appearance compared to last year, when there were sightings of these in early January, about a month earlier. But then again, last year was way early. The appearance of some other plants is also relatively later, also, including the tritelliaea, Camas (light blue and white), Hookers onions. As far as seeds go, only the yellow Desert Parsley has germinated, but there is a big mound and some shoots showing, so there will undoubtedly be dozens or more of these! Others anticipated, especially Woodland Penstemon, Iris Chrysophylla, Indian Paintbrush and Pink Fawn lillies, all of which have so far been elusive.

In review of the post from a year ago, I had found two barely live plants that had returned from the missing or dead, I’ll call them Lazarus the Rattlesnake plantain and Phoenix the Wild Ginger plant. Both are thriving now, despite their rough and slow starts. The Wild Ginger had been tortured by slugs, until I covered it with a cloche last year, the plantain I just kept uncovered by pine needles, and now nature has taken over.

We are having a number of small trees taken out, which have outgrown their sites. Four of these are evergreen trees inside the raised planter bed, in the north backyard. These have gotten too large and compete wth each other for sun, each growing way out over the deck and making a mess as well as ending up distorted by each other. These were all deliberately planted years ago: a moderate size Madrona (litters large leaves onto the deck), a Strawberry tree (which leaves a nasty mess with mushy berries and flowers on the deck), and two tallish Bay leaf trees. I had already planted two Myrtle trees BEHIND the raised planted bed, which are each about 6-7 feet tall now but are not getting enough sun, leaning over and with wimpy branches. Taking these four trees out will give the Myrtles lots of sun and they should fill in the screen border (I may throw a viburnum in between for good measure). Unfortunately there will be a paucity of screen in the meantime, so we’ll have to use the umbrella a lot. Fortunately though, the row of Myrtles, Viburnums, and Strawberry trees along this same border nearer the house have matured and near completely screen out the neighbors. This is more of a continuation of the same screen row pushed out of the yard, to reclaim the raised bed space. I’ll have to do a. It of LITTER cleaning once the trees are out, since the area under those trees is thick with leaves, small branches and pine needles. This is a pic from a several years ago looking at several of those trees (towards the right, around the red rhodie), they had already filled in the planter space:

Several other trees will be taken out here and there. This also includes several NON-NATIVE American Cranberrys, which turned out to be the European variety, and there were three that we need out (the fourth, which has grown almost as a trellis over the stream, will be kept). We found a true Native American Cranberry which will be planted. And some lowering of Vine Maples and pruning of some Pine branches.

Autumn has finally arrived

Of course, I always a deny the fall until it’s almost over, since we have some plants that persist into November and December. With the first freeze this past week, it’s basically winter and soon spring will be here! First snow, too, which was unusually on a Saturday instead of me having to drive through it, but it wasn’t heavy or sticking to the roads much anyway. It did stay around the yard all week, though, since it was freezing.

Planted some new seeds (in pots), mostly from eastern Washington . Synthyris/kitten tails, large flowered clover/trifoliate macrocephalum, Penstemon Gainderi, Penstemon deustus (white flowered), paintbrushes/Castilleja Elmeri and Miniata, Phlox Viscida, Balsamroot Serrata and Trollius Albiflora. Also planted in pots some white and small purple camas, bear grass seeds, and Purple avens (we have a few but not enough and we have too many of the large leaved yellow variety).

Many other plant seeds sewn in little areas (Dave calls them “clumps”) all over the yard. I had almost 50 packets of seeds of various types and quantities to sow in total. I try to mark them with white pumice so I don’t end up digging them out accidentally (I’ve seen some plants grow up together due to that if I’m lucky, who knows how many were lost, though). I’m still reluctant to put valuable plants, bulbs or seeds in areas that have been ravaged by moles in the past, even though the moles were much less active the last few years, or to plant them around aggressive plants like salal. So, I still end up putting most of these in certain places, but I finally have so many seeds of some types that I can be liberal. Too many to name, but lots of bulbs and plants that are underrepresented .

Below is not the snow we got last week, that was nothing by comparison. This is a winter wonderland from a couple of years back:

Late summer in all it’s glory – really!

We’ve had some good summer rains this year, about every 2-3 weeks or so. Combined with the hotter weather, the plants are loving it! Most everything looks beautiful and lush like it normally would if it got enough rain throughout the summer, which “normally” it doesn’t! A few plants still getting a little scorched, fewer now that I’ve transplanted most of them out of the direct summer sun? So, so’ s not to forget, here’s my transplant list for this fall:

Two huckleberries from backyard meadow, to west entry area.
Two maidenhair ferns from front yard to anywhere better, speaking of over sunned!
Pull out remainder of ajuga around patio, replant with new seedlings of Paintbrush, Gaillardia and Globemallow.
Hooker’s Fairybells to less summer sun.

I sowed a bunch of Trillium Chloropetalum seeds that the one newer plant produced (two small but productive pods), into three spots in the lower back yard. Propagating these would be a coup, as they are fragrant and more delicate looking than the Westerns. It is in an area that the moles have thankfully abandoned, as they have several other hazard spots, and not in too much sun. It will eventually be a little grotto for some ferns, Boykinia, Leopard lily, Fawn lily, chocolate lillies, Shooting stars, Miterwarts, Trilliums (Chloropetalum),Penstemons, spotted Saxifrage, Camas, Bear Grass, Balsamroot and Pussytoes, to name a few. Well, it will be trilliums in about 7 years, anyway, that’s what it takes from seed! The Western Trillium seeds from the last few years germinated well – we have about five different patches of two-year seedlings planted out in the ground, and about five of the three-year plants which were planted into a small pot.

We’re in the paper!

Our garden was featured in the Seattle Times’ Sunday garden section, as a native garden. The pix were taken last year, in May, so things have filled out more since then, but the photos were good anyway…our garden can be very photogenic and not hard to find many good shots.

Next up, Sunset! We were photographed in May of THIS year, during and after the native plants society tour on the 17th. I have to say, those pix are likely to be much better – there are more and larger plants that are relatively new, more filled out, and a few plants bloomed for the first time, including the gorgeous White Camas and White Brodiaea ass well as Bear grass…these pix really don’t do them justice!.

New pix for spring!

Desert parsley, trillium, shooting stars, fairy bells, camas, fawn lillies and bear grass

Planted out seedlings of Scarlet Gilia, Hyssop and Desert Parsley.will leave the Mariposa lillies and other bulbs in the planter pots until this fall.

Bear grass is blooming !

Almost, but it’s been years since the oldest plant was planted and this is the first time we’ll get a flower. There are actually two plants which will bloom, out of three. The flower stems are tall and the flowers are a billowing, roughly diamond shaped off white flower, the leaves like a tuft of sedge. The pic is not my flowers, though, I got it online. Mine will probably be in a week or so. Not sure how long it takes, the buds are still just a grassy knot.

The small camas is in bloom, as are the shooting stars, a peek of harsh paintbrush, the currant trees, and just a hint of the onslaught of penstemon blooms we’ll get!

New seedlings that are doing well: 2 mariposa lilies, scarlet Gilia, gaillardia, yellow desert parsley, a few hyssops. A few standbys: fawn lillies, hopefully the pink kind, small (dark purple) camas, light blue camas, Ookow, and Hooker’s onion.

Lots of trillium seedlings from my banner crop two years ago, in just about every spot I planted them, both front and back yard. I collected the pods, cleaned the seeds after about two weeks in the fridge, and planted them at about four weeks. Also a batch of about ten three year plants, too

Seed sowing time

Sowed some seeds of plants I need more of, including Iris Setosa (dark purple), Iris Chrysophylla (light yellow), Balsamroot (orange), small Camas quamash (purple blue), light blue Camas (Camas Howellii and Camas Cuseckii), Harsh Paintbrush (Castilleja hispida, orange), Golden Columbine, White Shooting Star (dodacatheon dentatum), Sea Pink (plectritis congesta), and mixed Brodiaeas – white, blue and lavender colored Congesta.

Planted out 2010 seedlings/ bulbs: White camas, Chocolate lily (very small bulbs, maybe they were 2011), small camas, White Brodiaea, Giant Trillium and two small fawn lily bulbs. Still have some 2010 Tiger and Leopard lilies to plant out.

Douglas and Eastern squirrels sharing the yard in a kind of co-op….Douglas in the mornings and the grey squirrel in the afternoons. Have been hearing the frog on occasion the last few weeks, until this past weekend, when it got kind of cold. Where do they hang out when it gets so cold?