A Stapelia Bonanza!

This week I acquired eleven new Stapelia specimens from Mesa Gardens in Belen, New Mexico. It took a lot of searching on the Internet to find a grower in the States, since shipping of plants into the country requires a lot of paperwork I'd rather not have to hassle with at this point.  I should have researched the species a little closer as well, as it turns out two of the "species", flavirostris and ambigua are actually synonyms for grandiflora.   It looks like a couple of the Stapelias I acquired from Miles2Go in Tucson, AZ are preparing to bloom.

"Group shot" of the new Stapelias.

Stapelia divaricata, Buffeljachte, Swellendam, Cape Province, South Africa

Stapelia glandulifera, South Africa

Stapelia grandiflora, South Africa

Stapelia hirsuta, South Africa

Stapelia kwebensis, Botswana, Zimbabwe and the northern Transvaal.

Stapelia obducta, South Africa

Stapelia scitula,Western Cape Province of South Africa.

Stapelia hirsuta var. tsomoensis, South Africa 

Stapelia hirsuta var. vetula, South Africa.

Stapelia erectiflora with what appears to be a flower bud (far right, top).

Stapelia flavopurpurea, with a small flower bud (center of photo).

The kalachoe I got at this year's Spring Swap is living up to the common nickname applicable to several species, "Mother of Thousands" or "Mother of Millions", as it is developing lots of plantlets along its' leaf margins.

Now for an update on some of the seeds I sowed indoors and the progress of the infloresence on the plumeria 'Novelty'.  The pumpkin seedlings were getting leggy, so they were planted on Saturday in the tree well under the nectarine where they should get some shade for a few weeks before the leaves fall off the tree. Almost all of the peppers have sprouted, as have some of the dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) seeds.  The plumeria infloresence continues to grow larger and it appears that flower buds are starting to form.

Dragon fruit seedling

Inflo on 9-18-13

Inflo today, 9-23-13.  It's changed a lot in just 5 days.

I also sowed some of the seeds of Hesperaloe parviflora that I gathered from a plant in a parking lot about a week ago, to make sure they're viable before I send some to a few of my friends.  I also sowed some of the black hollyhock seeds from Monticello that my friend Julie got for me this summer.  If all ten sprout, I'll be giving a couple to Julie, planting a few and taking the rest to the Fall Swap.

Project update

Thought I'd provide updates on some of the plant projects I've got going, some recently started and others that have been more long term.  The Hollywood apple has settled in nicely and is even showing some new growth, so I need to finish the espalier frame and prepare to start training the tree to the wire.  The Eureka Lemon tree has made a full recovery from the hard freeze in January and I've spent some time pruning it to improve its' shape.  Surprisingly, it has a handful of lemons on it, which is unexpected considering the freeze hit just as it was beginning to bloom.

It'll be a few more months before this can become lemonade.

In early May I planted some amaryllis 'Minerva' seeds and have had one successful sprout, which is now almost 6" tall and has two leaves.  I'm keeping it under the cloche until the daytime highs stay in the 80's to make sure it survives.

About a month ago I took a cutting from my elephant food plant, Portulaca afra, with the goal of turing it into a bonsai, and over the weekend I decided it had developed enough roots to pot it up.  Eventually, I'll get some moss to cover the exposed soil and place between the rocks, but for now, I think it looks nice enough to brag about just a little.

Two of the peppers I planted last month have already developed some mnature fruit.  The Fushimi has a sweetness tempered by a bit of acidity and should be nice in salads and salsas, while the Padron is sweet with just a bit of heat at the finish and should go well in salsas and egg dishes.

Fushimi

Padron

Another sunflower has bloomed and 9 out of 10 pumpkins seeds have sprouted and are already straining towards the sun, so I think I'll have to move the seed trays under a window.

Lastly, I've shown pictures of the flowers of Stapelia gigantea before when they're fully open or nearly so, but I don't think I've ever shown them as they progress from a tiny bud, barely noticeable, until they bloom in all their attention grabbing glory. Every day starting today, I'm going to take a picure of the two buds I found forming and then I'll post a timelapse video once they open.  I'll try to take the pictures as near to 24 hours apart as possible for consistency.

Can you see the two flower buds in this photo?

Things Are Blooming Again, More Seed Sowing and a Larry Update

On Monday we got rain, and lots of it, mostly in a steady drizzle rather than the usual monsoon deluge at this time of year.  When it was all said and done, the total was 1.15", which is 1/8th of our annual average and I haven't had to water all week, except for the planters on the porch.  The plants are responding to the soaking with water that was a lot less alkaline than our groundwater by bursting out in bloom after struggling most of the summer just to survive.  I trimmed back the sunburned leaves off of the cannas last week; new growth and blooms indicate it was the right thing to do.  The Climbing Don Juan and Iceberg roses are blooming again and the petals aren't showing any sign of sunburn like they were a month ago.  The moss rose, a least what survived, is covered in blooms.  I sowed seeds in the top two tiers and am waiting to see if they sprout; if not, I'll have to buy some more plants.  Two of the dozen or so sunflowers that sprouted and managed to survive the irrigation issues have bloomed, even though they're only 1 1/2 feet tall and I'm not sure if that's normal or if they're stunted; guess I'll have to go through my seed packets to see if I can identify them.

Cannas are looking a lot better than they did a week ago.

Climbing Don Juan and Iceberg roses.

Moss rose

The one surviving strawberry plant is sending out runners and hopefully when the weather gets back into the 80's, I'll be picking berries again.  The boysenberry is also putting on new growth which I'm tying onto the trellis in the hope that it will fill the entire trellis by Spring.

This year has been hard on the wheelbarrow succulent garden, between the freezes in January and February and intense heat this Summer, I lost several plants and this week I filled some of the empty space with an Aloe aristata and a Haworthia symbiformis.  Next month is the Fall Plant Sale at the Desert Botanical Garden and I think I'll wait until then to see want else I can find that peaks my interest.

Aloe aristata

Haworthia cymbiformis

Two weekends ago, I went to visit my good friend Julie to plan our cruise next year, have barbecue, play Scrabble and pick up a bunch of pots and other garden goodies.  I got two shepherd's hooks and placed one outside my office window with a feeder on one side and a waterer on the other.  Now I'm starting to see a few sparrows along with the finches, and I've even seen some of them drinking from the waterer.

Some of the seeds I sowed on Monday have already sprouted, including the cabbage and turnips.  I also sowed seeds for 18 varieties of peppers, both sweet peppers and chiles.  The list consists of the following sweet peppers: California Wonder, Cubanelle, Marconi Red, Piment d'Espelette, Orange Sun, Shishito and sweet Banana.  The chiles consist of Aji Limon, Anaheim, Cascabel, Cherry Hot, Chiltepin, Costeno Amarillo, Datil, Jalapeno, Pequin and Uba Tuba.  Combined with the four varieties I already have in the ground, that'll make twenty-two varieties, split 2:1, hot to sweet.

A few sprouts peeking their heads above ground.

Larry put on his annual tribute to the American worker for Labor Day, then in anticipation of the beginning of the football regular season opener, put on his Packer's shirt and hat, got out his pennant and cheered them on last Sunday; unfortunately it wasn't enough, but there's always next week.

Tailgating with the efl.

Time To Start The Fall Garden

It's been so hot for so long, it felt like it would never end, but today it finally happended and we had a high of just 90, plus 1.15" of rain.  This put me in the mood to get started on the Fall garden, so I started seeds for Blue, Jack O'Lantern and Small Sugar pumpkins, plus Calabrese Broccoli, Early Golden Acre Cabbage, Early White Vienna Kohlrabi, Purple Top White Globe and Seven Top Turnips and Iceberg Lettuce.  I used some of the seeds and seed starters I bought recently at Dolllar General and set them up on a table in my backroom, since a return to highs in the low 100's is in the 10-day forecast and I don't want the sprouts to get toasted.

The pumpkins are in the covered container; the rest are labeled using toothpicks.

I also recently picked up a dragon fruit, Hylocereus undatus, at a local Asian market as I wanted to gather seeds to try to grow some, plus I love the flesh of the fruit.  I cut open the fruit and used the knife edge to gently scrape some seeds out, then placed them on a paper towel to separate the seeds from the pulp.  I filled one of the fiber seed starters with a mixture of compost, sand and vermiculite, wetting the soil, then tamped it down, placed several seeds in each section and coverd with more soil.  The whole tray then went into a plastic container used as a greenhouse; once the seeds sprout, the lid will be removed and the bottom will remain as a water reservoir.  Various references state that germination happens within 3-14 days, with most stating 11-14 days, so time will tell which is most accurate.

Dragon fruit

Sectioned to expose the seeds

Seeds after being removed; note the seeds on the left that have been separated from the pulp.

Seeds ready to be sown.

Seed tray ready to be planted.

Now I wait for them to sprout.

In other news, I finally have some inflorescences developing on one of my Plumerias that I got at this year's Spring Swap.  The variety is 'Novelty' and I can't wait to see what this one looks like; pictures will be forthcoming.

Garden Update for August 29, 2013

Despite the loss of the avocado tree after transplant, I hadn't given up on my plans to create an espaliered fruit tree and recently acquired a Hollywood Apple tree for that purpose, while also adding to my collection of apples.  Today we finally had a day with cool enough weather in the forecast for me to transplant the tree, which I'd already begun shaping.  Next I need to stall the espalier framework, which is being made from old chain link fence poles I've had laying around for some time.  I'll string wire between the poles to train the branches on in whatever design I settle on, although I'm leaning towards a chevron pattern.

Hollywood apple waiting to be espaliered.

Yesterday I found an ad on Craigslist for free pallets and headed over to pick some up.  The ad said they were smaller than the usual pallets, but what it didn't say was that they weren't slatted, but had a solid plywood top.  I put as many as I could into my SUV, which turned out to be a dozen and decided that they would become the floor for the greenhouse I'm going to build.  I now have enough to build a greenhouse that will be roughly 8' x 9', but am thinking about going back to see if they have any more, since just eight more would give me a 9.5' x 13.5' greenhouse. I'll have to remove the strips of wood from the tops, but other than that, they're as close to perfect as I could hope for.

These pallets were an expected find.

On the 13th, I wrote about transplanting the sage into the ladder planter and thought I'd give an update; all of the plants have survived, and the top one is thriving, so I'm confident that these wonderful 3 year old plants will be providing leaves for cooking for years to come.

Just a little over 2 weeks after transplant.

I found out from one of my gardening buddies on Facebook that Dollar General was having a 90% off clearance sale on seeds and seed starting kits, so I went to one over the weekend and bought 15 seed packets for $0.55, then went to another one on Tuesday and it had a much better selection.  $3.76 later, I left the store with 23 seed starter kits, 2 5-packs of fiber seed trays and another 3 dozen seed packets. Wednesday I went to a third one and it was really picked over, although I did find a pair of Harvest Gnomes for $10.  I bought so many seeds I had to buy another organizer to hold them all. I've already used some of them including moss rose Portulaca grandiflora, African Daisy, Dimorphotheca aurantiaca, and Zinna 'Dwarf Pumila Sprite' in assorted colors.

Here's the cute couple.

All the seeds safely stored and mounted on the wall of my air conditioned shed.

The Stapelia gigantea is blooming again; this one bloomed on Monday and the unopened one in the top of the photo bloomed yesterday, with one more bloom yet to go.

This plant has bloomed every year for the past 10 years.

I found a few gardening related treasures lately including a bulb box I'd been eyeing for some time at Target; once it went on clearance I snapped one up.  I also found three antique seed boxes from the 1920's at an antique store for $3 each; two of them are in shadow boxes I already had lying around and the third needs one, so a trip to Michael's is in my future.  I also picked up a great vintage planter at Goodwill for $4 and now need to find something to plant in it. With all the seeds I bought, I should be able to find something.

Great vintage looking bulb box.

With Labor Day fast approaching, my next post will definitely include an update on Larry's latest look.

Succulent Follow-up and A Few New Things

As promised, here are photos of the new succulents all potted up and placed in their new home.  Both of the E. obesa went into the wheelbarrow with the existing one I bought last year; it was about the same size as the new ones back then.

The Stapelias all went on the front porch which is all succulents except for the Amaryllis, and they will have to move eventually to make room for more Stapelias, since I found out there are about forty species of of them.

S. cedrimontana & S. flavopurpurea

Back row: S. variegata & unkn S. species
Front row: S. rufa & S. asterias

S. erectiflora & S. shinzii

The front porch succulent garden.

Notice in the next picture how the flower buds are twisted at the end; they slowly unwind as the bud gets bigger and bigger and then finally opens.

S. gigantea buds preparing to open.

I planted the peppers in the bed with the sunflowers, as it was originally built for peppers.

My neighbor gave me a topiary that died and I removed the dead plant (rosemary) and bought a new rosemary plant, potted it an empty pot I had lying around, then placed the topiary frame over the rosemary. In a few months it should fill out enought to start looking like a real topiary.

Rosemary elephant topiary.

The lone surviving strawberry is sending out runners; the yellow banana squash, a type of yellow zucchini, looks like it set its' first fruit, and the Climbing Don Juan put out some nice blooms.

Once the S. gigantea buds open, I'll post some pictures, otherwise the next post should come this weekend.