Operation Propogation

Many of us are spoiled...

we like our new plants big, healthy, blooming or fruiting, etc

the minute we put them in the ground. 

It takes more planning and imagination to plant immature plants,

or (gasp) sow seeds. 

It's easier to pick out a nice, mature speciman

and add it to the garden creating instant beauty

and immediately achieving the perfect landscape. 

Who wouldn't like that?! 

But, of course, this path is a pricey one. 

I typically choose the more frugal path
of perusing the clearance isle of big box stores,

the 'first aid' section of the local nursery, or better yet,

obtaining divisions from friends and neighbors. 

Our local extension office typically offers young affordable plants as well. 

Of course, these discounted rates come at the great price of patience. 

Luckily, most gardeners are well acquainted

with this quality and lovingly wait,

coddle, fertilize and speak with our fledgling foliage.

Recently, I charged down another path....

"Operation Propogation". 

This is actually a little embarrassing

because the majority of my family are FARMERS,

and I am well-versed in farming practices. 

However, I don't typically opt for propogation techniques...

primarily due to lack of experience and funds

to retry my experiment if it fails. 

However, due to my lack of funds

to opt for the previously mentioned paths,

I am forced to charter unknown territory. 

My first challenge is easy. 

So easy, I've done it since I was a child 

but never referred to it by it's proper term of 'propogation'.  

Last week while on a walk, I found a gorgeous passion vine

growing wild along a hedgegrow and pinched off some new growth.

I proceded to take it home, cut it into 10-15" sections

and place them in a cup of water to root. 

Tah Dah!!!  Propogation!!! 

Actually, many vines root in water quite readily. 

The trick is to obtain new growth and cut

into 10-15" sections about an inch or two below a node. 

Remove bottom foliage and keep the water clean. 

Before you  know it, new roots form and can be planted in soil. 

Be sure to keep the soil moist (not wet)

until the plant becomes established. 

Of course, some plants are more difficult to root this way,

and I am certainly no authority. 

Check with your local extension office or master gardener for specifics.
(I'd like to note that the internet suggests propogating passion vine via moist moss/soil and growth hormone vs submerging in water. I'm using my grandmother's method for now...I'll try it the other way if this method fails.) 

My second challenge is just as easy,

although I didn't know about it until

I spoke with a friend of mine last year...

John of JGs Tropical Plants

informed a group of ginger and heliconia enthusiasts

how easy it is to grow your own edible ginger. 

Simply purchase some ginger root from your local farmers market

(the grocery is OK but it's been sitting around longer than the fresh market),

bring it home and place it on your kitchen counter. 

Let it sit. It's a little annoying, but just do it. 

It will grow little sprouts, similar to a potato.

Once the sprouts appear, simply lay the root

on top of some soil
and gently sprinkle soil on top of it.

Now treat it like any other plant...water as needed. 

I've not grown my own edible ginger before, but I am now!

Another new challenge was

growing new dendrobium orchids from stem cuttings. 

Lets face it...

when not in bloom, dendrobiums are not attractive. 

They mean well, but honestly!!! 

And since dendrobiums usually benefit

from a little cooling off in the winter,

I left mine out on the back patio during a cold spell. 

Unfortunately, it got a little too cold

and my poor orchid dropped most of its leaves. 

Seeing as the poor thing was now even less attractive than before, 

I chose to propogate. 

I reached for my handy reference book for this project. 

Dendrobiums are supposed to be easy to grow,

but I don't know about cutting them up! 

So, here's the procedure...

Gather your materials...

sphagnum moss, sharp sterile knife /pruners,

and plastic bag or plastic covering.

Cut the leafless orchid stem

close to the base using a sharp sterile tool.

Moisten the sphagnum moss in clean water

(not from the tap).

Cut the dendrobium stem in 2-3 inch sections,

making sure each section has at least one

dormant bud where a leaf once grew.

Place the cut orchid sections horizontally on the moist moss and keep in a moist shady spot. I placed mine in a ziploc bag to form a terrarium.  Once the buds have produced plantlets, detach and plant them in orchid mixture/bark.  I'm still waiting, but am hoping for the best!

Finally, I used the original method of propogating by seed. 

Last fall, Susan from Simply Susan graciously sent me

some blackberry lily seeds. 

Since I was moving, I saved them to plant at my new home. 

Blackberry lilies grow easily from seeds although I wasn't sure

of the exact method so I planted some indoors in a pot

and planted others directly in the soil outdoors. 

They reportedly take 2-4 weeks to sprout. 

We'll see what happens!

So there you have it, and there it is!! 

"Operation Propogation" is in full swing! 

I'll post my results, positive or negative. 

Keep your fingers crossed for beautiful blooms!!

Hard Work and Good Karma!

Only a handful of months ago, Florida experienced a record cold winter, devestating tropical plants, wildlife and residents.  Afterall, more than 2 weeks of chilling temps is ridiculous...that's why we live down here. BUT (the big but!!) now we are getting hit by early, HOT, HUMID temperatures.  I mean, it's only June.  Oh well, finicky aren't we?!

This last weekend, during such a nasty hot spell, I decided it was time to complete a few gardening tasks that were suddenly screaming at me.  Of course, the atrocities that needed to be corrected were labor intensive, so I required additional muscle.  Let's just say that my husband wasn't too happy.  In his defense, we were tackling the pointy, overly defensive Agave plant as well as the clingy, strong-willed honeysuckle vine in seemingly 150 degree temperatures.   

The first task was to remove the YOUNG Agave plant that flowered at only 3 years old. I have no idea what happened, but this particular Agave did not live up to it's knickname, "Century Plant".  So, as my friends Noelle of Ramblings from a Desert Garden and Floridagirl of Peace in the Valley informed me, the Agave would slowly decline after blooming.  Indeed it was declining and needed to be removed.  In spite of the spear-like tips, serrated edges and poisonous sap that I'm highly allergic to, we were successful. 

 I also needed to do something with the Gaillardia starts that I'd left unplucked. The space looked weedy. 

I relocated the giant Kalanchoe to fill the empty space, and thinned out the unkempt White Bird of Paradise.  Here's the cleaned up version.

Next on the list was one of our strong-willed children - the honeysuckle.  I had planted the vine between two young crinum lilies in the Rear Side Garden to fill space while the crinums grew. 

This photo was taken almost a year ago.

Now mature, the crinums are large and the space was crowded so it was time for the honeysuckle to go.  Honey wanted no part of this and clung to the fence and soil defiantly.  We finally persuaded her, though.  I filled the space with some Pentas that I'd thinned from the same garden space. 

I continued on my correctional path alone as the hard labor portion was complete.  Oyster Plants and Vincas had become overgrown, choking heliconia, cannas, ground orchids, recuperating crotons.

 

 

Ahhh!  That's better!

This little plumeria can see the sun now!

There's the heliconia!

All this hard work in the middle of a nasty hot afternoon does not go unrewarded, though!  Take a look at what I've recently found...discarded ginger and bromelaids! 

Woo Hoo!

I found this bunch of bromelaids in the curbside garbage, divided them, and planted throughout my garden. 

I found a bunch of ginger stalks on another curbside. I consulted my friend John Goss who suggested they might be a Costus variety which produces those cool red pine cone features when in bloom!

Each stalk had a young shoot growing from the top.

I gently broke off each young shoot from the host.

The shoots already had roots forming.

I gave them a drink before planting, since I had no idea how long they'd been baking in the sun.

And one final prize, found at the end of yet another driveway.

Can you believe my good fortune?

Now, who says hard work doesn't pay off?! 

I believe that's good karma!

Heliconia and Ginger Extravaganza!

After a long, challenging week at work, overcoming stomach flu, and nursing sick children, who wouldn't be ready to kick back and relax a bit?!  I started the weekend with a Heliconia and Ginger sale at the new Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens...so excited!  You can find out about it here and here .

But first things first.  Lola and I got an early start with some lovely strawberry / banana bread and a cup-o-joe! 

Then off to the gardens for our daily inspection.  But we'll talk about that later this week when we post about what's going on in our May garden for Simply Susan's! monthly favorites (posted on the 25th of every month). 

I've been looking forward to the Heliconia and Ginger sale as I'm a sucker for tropicals but I know very little about these lovely florals.  After a little bit of research, I found out that heliconia is derived from the Greek word "helikonios" which makes my Greek husband very happy!  My household is truly similar to the movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" where the Greek Father, Gus Portokalos proudly announces,  "Give me a word, any word, and I show you that the root of that word is Greek."  (click to see the movie clip) Afterall, he also proclaims that "There are two kinds of people - Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek."  So there you go!

Anyway, back to heliconia. There are 100-200 species, and are they gorgeous!!!  They're native to the tropical Americas and the Pacific Ocean island west to Indonesia.  Some common names are Lobster Claw, Wild Plantains or False Bird of Paradise.  This is because heliconias are related to both bananas and the Bird of Paradise.  Heliconias are also a food source for the forest hummingbird while other birds use it for nesting purposes.  I've not seen anything like that in Florida, but who knows...I'm open to the possibilities!! 

The sale included really fantastic plants.  Since I only have one type of heliconia, and I have no idea what it's called or what flower it will produce (I inherited it), I've always coveted the amazingly awesome lobster claw, Rostrata, or Pendant heliconia.  This specific variety was one of the first I saw. 

Another interesting one was the H. Splash.  The leaves look very similar to a banana, but they produce a wonderfully tropical bloom.

There were several mini-seminars re. the varieties - so much knowledge!!!  Among other topics, we learned about the difference between ornamental and edible ginger.

Apparently, edible ginger left to bloom forms a colorful cone that looks similar to the Shampoo Ginger.  I've not tried it, but the cone is supposedly squeezed to excrete a soapy substance that us used as shampoo and soap.  Interesting!!

There were several cold hardy, fragrant blooming gingers. 

These gingers are cold hardy even in the Carolinas.

Kahili Ginger

Disney Ginger

White Butterfly Ginger

It was really difficult to choose among the many varieties.  I've only highlighted the ones that I found interesting...there were many more, making the choice really hard - especially since I'm on a budget and these plants were not necessarily inexpensive.  I decided to opt for the "rare" varieties...

The Costas Amazonacus has a really pretty variegated leaf while producing a huge white bloom. The BEST part about this rare ginger is that it's native to the higher elevations of Peru so it's somewhat COLD HARDY!  The key is to protect the rhizome which will come back year after year, even after the plant above ground is be lost. 

The H. Aemygdiana is reportedly rare, and is so striking! Who could pass it up?!

But the BEST find was this Costus Speciosus.  This brilliantly variegated plant grows 5-6 feet and naturally SPRIALS all by itself with NO STAKING REQUIRED!  Isn't this plant AMAZING?!?!  As if the natural spiral isn't cool enough, it produces a spectacularly large white bloom!  Well, I HAD to have it!!!!

I also picked up this little bare root H. stricta Dwarf Jamaican for $5!  Couldn't resist!

All of these fantastic plants can be purchased from J.G's Tropical Plants.  Just check out his website at http://jgstropicalplants.com/index.html .  He will SHIP!!!!  He also travels all over the state for plant shows/sales...his website offers a list of locations.

I ended my weekend on the boat...one of our favorite summer activities, and another reason I blog less this time of year!