Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Blooms in the Basement

It's 36 degrees. It was a beautiful sunrise. With less than 2 months til spring, the sun is slowly moving back to the east each morning.



The yellow brugmansia opened last night. The fragrance was nice, but not as strong as the ones in the yard this summer.



Pineapple sage is also blooming. Several plants are pushing out tiny, weak blooms under the fluorescent lights.



A Salvia leucantha cutting is trying really hard to keep up.



Brugmansia seedlings. These are the ones I sowed more than a month ago. I can't wait to see them bloom.



Today, I'm off work. Have plans to head over to Carla's to help cut and split some wood from a tree taken down this summer. Also planning to prune her very large, overgrown Brown Turkey fig tree. From my perennial bed, I'm taking her several butterfly bushes. They were grown from cuttings stuck last year where I wanted them to grow. I just pushed the limbs into the ground and trimmed them way back. All of them survived and bloomed again this year. I'm taking them out of the circle bed near the birdbath. Tomorrow morning, I plan to remove even more plants from that space. I want a cleaner slate when the wintersown perennials are planted out.

The forecast today: 67 degrees. It's January.

5:54pm - Spent the day between Carla's and the gully. We chopped and split some wood for her sister at her house, trimmed a fig tree, and planted some butterfly bushes. In the gully, we pulled out some stones to finish her edging along the front of the house.

I came back, cleaned and wrapped some fig cuttings from her possible brown turkey. I bleached them in a 10% solution, wrapped them in newspaper, and put them in gallon ziplocks. They'll stay there for the next month. In early March, they'll be put in containers in the hoophouse.

I also brought back a piece of her fig tree that had some small roots. It's about 4' tall and 1.5" in diameter. I'm hoping it takes.



Outside, I have more sprouts.













The high today reached 64. It's 59 degrees currently. The sun has almost disappeared below the horizon.

7:16pm - 20 more containers have been sown. The White Texas Star seeds from two of my recent trades arrived. I sowed 4 containers of each. Solidago fireworks, euphorbia marginata, and Chocolate Joe Pye Weed were some of the others.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your cuttings and blooms all look so healthy! And I see we are into the 50's on the Days Til Spring countdown! Whoo-hoo! :) Your sunrise shot is gorgeous.

Darla said...

Jealous, jealous, jealous is all I can type!!

Darla said...

I"m getting past my jealousy..lol Hey Tom, the brug that I rooted is growing very nicely, no blooms of course..anyway, I have the double datura but have never grown the brug. I am reading conficting reports regarding the best light conditions for it. Where do you grow yours?

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Hi Tom ~ How cool to have blooms in your basement. You sure have a green thumb. I am really looking forward to seeing what you do with your gardens this year.

I just noticed your new profile picture. You look different without your smile.

I see in your profile that you are a pisces, so am I, my bday being the first day of spring, 20th March. When is your bday?

Enjoy your day off. It is a bit cool here today, was warmer the past few days.

FlowerLady

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

Thanks Nancy. I tend to ignore them for a few days at a time. Too much coddling causes problems. I water them every third day unless I'm using the wood heater a lot, then every two days.

Darla, I put mine where they get about 4 hours of sun a day. The best flushes came from those in mid day sun with late afternoon and morning shade. This year, I plan to give them half day sun from sunrise to about 1pm.

FlowerLady, My birthday is February 28th. The new picture was taken just the other night. My other one was several years old. The goatee and hair changes the look a bit too. And I've lost a little weight over the years.

ChrisC said...

I may live in Florida,but I feel like such a slacker compared to you.I've been too busy whining about last weeks freezes.

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

Chris, it's not a race. I just happen to enjoy doing all these things. Figs are one of my favorite fruits and I absolutely love propagating plants via cuttings and seed.

The warm weather really does help.

Darla said...

Thanks Big Guy!

L. D. said...

Keep up all the work. I know you are having fun and your a heck of a lot younger than me. It is fun to see all that is going on with your plants.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

How lucky to have the brug flowering inside, even if it doesn't smell as good.
I found that I already have some things sprouting that I winter sowed last week.

Pippi21 said...

You should try your hand at writing a gardening column for the local newspaper! Loved your story of the "sick coffeepot"