More rain, roots, and wood.

It's a dark, dreary morning. There's a steady slow rain falling. It's 43 degrees.



In the cloner, one of the Honeycomb buddleia cuttings is ready to pot. A second one should be ready by Tuesday.



The snow forecast earlier in the week will not become reality. When the temperature finally falls into the proper range this evening, the rain should be gone. Tonight, the low will drop to the mid 20s, our coldest night yet. I'll spend a few minutes today chopping more kindling that I use to keep the basement heater going. The firewood I've split and collected is still wet inside. The kindling keeps the heat on until the moisture is boiled away.

The Dove did not return

As previously stated, it rained yesterday. This morning, the sun is out and the waters (in the basement and in the yard) have receded. The ground is like a sponge. Hopefully warmer temperatures and some sunlight will dry things out a bit. I've got some leaves I'd like to mulch today, but it might not be possible. The rain gauge collected 1.5" of rain. The local forecast says we got .87". Since it was coming in sideways half the evening, I'm thinking we got more, but the instruments were unable to measure it.

Yesterday, I noticed the first roots growing on the Honeycomb buddleia. I took a photo this morning to compare, 24 hours later.



versus yesterday at 8:30am.



It's just plain water in the cloner. More roots appeared on other cuttings overnight. Some cuttings were potted yesterday so the pictures aren't exactly the same. I've got a couple more that need to be transplanted into containers today. There's also the matter of firewood that I have to address, assuming I can even get into the gully this morning.

It's 50 degrees and sunny. Today's high should reach 63. Snow is still in the forecast for Saturday evening.

Honeycomb, honeycomb

Yeah, yeah, yeah!

When I was a kid, I'd hear that jingle every time I sat down to watch my Saturday morning cartoons. It was a breakfast cereal. Yesterday, one of my customers brought me a different kind of Honeycomb.



I put 6 cuttings in the cloner on my lunch break. The rest are in water along with the Salvia leucantha branches she brought too. I'll stick some in the cloner and the others in soil. I'm not sure which method will net me the best results as I've not grown Mexican sage before. I do know that fresh new growth from butterfly bushes stuck just over a week ago are already rooting in the cloner. I'm really excited to add both of these plants to my gardens.

It's 39 degrees and slightly hazy this morning. I'm going to spend a little time in the basement rearranging my plant rack. I've mailed out a few cuttings to people already. I need to get a few more ready to go after Thanksgiving. Everything needs to be watered again. The wood heater is drying things out quickly. The pineapple sage cuttings are trying to bloom again.

I also need to get my hoophouse beds ready. I need to cut the rebar and drill the holes in the two small raised beds. Lots of things to do today. But first, coffee.

10:21am - Repotted some of the brugs. A few of the cuttings have wilted and died with no roots formed. I've still got lots left.

The butterfly bushes I stuck last week are rooting.



I stuck 12 cuttings of Honeycomb in soil. I have 6 others in the cloner. I stuck 3 cuttings of S. leucantha in the cloner and another 6 in soil. I'm using 6-pack trays and gallon sized ziplock bags. The medium is half peat and half perlite. I finally broke down and bought a bag of perlite last week. It makes the medium fluffy rather than hard packed. I like this stuff.

Heading back downstairs to cut the rebar for my two smaller raised beds. 3.5 hours til work. It's 50 degrees.