Having Fun with Pots, Camassia and Jack-in-the-Pulpit

It's always fun to go to the garden center and buy some plants and put them together in a pot.  I got a little carried away with this pot and it is crammed full of plants. It will definitely need regular fertilizing.

This one looks scraggy right now.  There is a geranium that I overwintered in the middle of the pot so I am hoping the geranium will grow some new leaves and bloom in a little while.

This is my pot of leftovers.  It should fill in nicely later in the summer. The hummingbirds will be attracted to the fuchsia and red verbena and purple salvia.

The wild jack-in-the-pulpits are in bloom.  As our bush opens up as the trees get bigger and further apart, we have more of the woodland wildflowers.

Blue camassia is a wildflower in some areas but not around here.  Years ago I had planted some down near our ditch and they happily grew there for several years and then, I suppose some little creature ate the bulbs, because they disappeared.  But a bird must have deposited a seed up nearer to the house and now it is growing on the edge of a garden.  Perfect place for it.
 

Tulips, Bishop's Hat, White Bleeding Heart

Angelique tulip is a lovely double pink.  I find it reliably comes back for 4 or 5 years in my Ontario garden unlike some other tulips that are only good for the initial year and maybe one more.

I noticed it has two little flowers growing from bulb offsets. I've never had a tulip do that before. I presume they will bloom again next year.

Tulips are fun because they come in so many colours and forms.  These tulips were sold as a combo and they do look very nice together. I think I like the lily flowered tulips more that the traditional rounded ones.

The Bishop's Hat (Epimedium grandiflora) is going gang busters this spring.  It must have 10 -12 flower stalks each with 10-20 flowers.  Lots of little bouncing flowers that the bumblebees love.

A friend gave me a division of her white bleeding heart last year.  I like any kind of bleeding heart but I actually prefer the traditional pink and white blooms.

A nice interplay of blue and pink forget-me-knots.  Although it looks like one plant, it is several plants intertwining with each other. I like the way forget-me-nots just randomly come out blue, or pink, or white.

I planted out my tomatoes and peppers and now they are saying chance of frost in a few days. The tomatoes I will protect with crumbled newspaper, but the peppers I will dig up (only 5 plants) and bring them back inside as they are a variety I can't buy locally.  Traditionally, the safe date for frosts in our area is May 24 but I always jump the gun otherwise you miss out on a week or two of good weather. I usually manage to protect my tender plants so I find it's worth planting a bit early.
 

White Anemone , Daffodil Reversion, Wild Woodland Flowers, Vinca

A nice little clump of white anemone blanda. They are sports of the purple variety that I have elsewhere.

Very delicate and pretty with the yellow stamens and lime green center.

These daffodils and the orange and white one below have reverted back to different form.  The creamy ones used to have a yellow trumpet and the orange one comes from a double daffodil that has an orange and yellow frilly center.  

I like the orange and white.  Perhaps I will buy some that are sold in this colour scheme.

This small daffodil was always bright yellow and will stay that way as yellow is a basic daffodil colour.

I thought this arrangement of wildflowers was fun.  Dogtooth violets, red trilliums and white trilliums all in the same view.  The red trillium petals are quite chewed which is unusual but it's still colourful.

The vinca (periwinkle) is blooming a bit.  Mine is a variegated-leaf variety which is not quite as vigorous as the plain leaf one.  Vinca can be an aggressive spreader but I have it planted between the house and a path so it is confined. It's helping to cover a dry shady area. 

Potting Soil Matters

 It just so happened that when I was planting up the pepper plants that I had two bags of different potting soil.  I thought I would label the pots and see if there was a difference.  Well, it's obvious there is a difference.  The plant on the left was planted in Miracle Grow Potting Mix and the one on the right was planted in Organic Promix.  Not only is the right-hand plant taller but the stem is thicker and sturdier making it nice and straight.  It has several buds that are farther along than the one in the left pot. When they were outside for a few days a couple of weeks ago, the right-hand plant was able to handle some sun where as the other one was more affected.

I have opened a Youtube channel :  Pint-size Stories.  The first video is titled: Home Away from Home.  As well as narrating very short stories (Flash Fiction type), I will provide tidbits from the garden and nature. I hope you will take a look at the Youtube channel and, if you like the idea of it, subscribe to it. The first video is very short but I plan to make them about 5 minutes long - easy to watch as you sip your morning coffee.

Over Wintered Seed Potatoes

I grew quite a few potatoes last year and was very pleased with them.  I ordered the seed potatoes from Eagle Creek. I thought I would try overwintering some of them to see if I could use my own potatoes as seed potatoes.  These potatoes are in perfect condition.

I harvested them later in the season and put them in a sandwich bag that I cut slits in. I stored them in the vegetable crisper drawer of the fridge .

 I still ordered a good supply of seed potatoes from Eagle Creek this year as I didn't  save many potatoes and wanted to make sure I have plenty for this year's garden.

These ones were harvested a little earlier but my mistake with them was that I had them at room temperature for a couple of weeks before I put them in the basement where it is about 15C. I stored them individually wrapped in paper towel inside an empty cereal box.  They were fine until February when they started to sprout.  They are quite shrivelled at this point but the shoots look fine so I planted them today in the garden.  Next year I will store all the potatoes saved for planting in the fridge. 

I was pleased at how well the home grown potatoes lasted.  Even the ones stored in the kitchen were firm with no sprouts in December. I had also parboiled, diced and frozen some of the potatoes and that worked well.  We had some just recently.  Very tasty fried up with some butter.  

 Plants I started inside are being hardened off.  The lettuce in the green pots will stay in the pots. I have found that three lettuce plants can grow quite nicely in an 8" pot if you fertilize them. This way if we get a sudden late frost I can bring them back in the house.  I planted some seed in the raised bed today so they will be ready when the potted lettuce is finished. The deck faces east which is perfect for hardening the plans off as they get the morning sun but not the stronger afternoon sun.

Spring Indoor Blooming Plants -Rose, Bougainvillae, African Violet, Orchid

In January, I bought this 4 plant pot of miniature roses. When I brought it home, it had a couple of stunted blooms and a few buds.  They all proceeded to fall off as well as many leaves.  This usually happens when you bring a greenhouse rose from the grocery store into your home. All the changes are just too much for the plant.  However,  I fertilized it with Miracle Grow- Ultra Bloom (15-30-15) liquid fertilizer and now it is blooming nicely with lots of new growth.

It is a bit floppy but that could just be the lower light on a windowsill as opposed to being outside.  I am thinking of putting a couple of the plants in a hanging basket with other plants for the summer.  In the fall, I will plant the four plants in the ground as they do not make a good permanent houseplant.  They are supposed to be hardy to zone 4.  In the past, I have had miniature roses that lasted several years in the garden.

Crazy bougainvillae.  It bloomed as it usually does in February.  After a time, the blooms fell off as well as quite a few leaves.  OK, I thought, now it needs a rest.  Well, no, it started to put on new growth and after a shot of fertilizer it is blooming again. Lovely bright pink flowers which dry beautifully.

 

A friend gave me this violet last fall.  It has been blooming constantly since January.  I had it close to a south window for the winter and now I have moved it back a bit so it doesn't get scorched by the strong spring sun.  

This lovely orchid blooms reliably every winter.  The flowers last for weeks.  When it is flowering, I feed it once a month with liquid fertilizer.  I always water it with rainwater or distilled water. I give it about 1/4 cup of room temperature water once a week.

The kalanchoe of my last post in January is still blooming. I have taken cuttings so that hopefully next year I will have even more kalanchoes in bloom.  Such an easy plant to grow. It's quite happy for the soil to dry out but can also handle a decent watering as long as it doesn't stay wet over a significant period of time. Just not fussy at all.

Spring is cool and rainy this year so having the indoor plants blooming is especially nice.

 

Bringing Kalanchoe into Bloom

 Last spring I took a cutting from a kalanchoe that had bloomed last winter.  I triggered the blooming last year by covering the kalanchoe with a dark plastic bag for 14 hours to simulate short days.  This fall, I left this small plant on the windowsill and closed the window drape at sunset which meant the plant was sandwiched between the window and the drape. This gave it the darkness it needed.  I didn't know if it would mind the chilly temperatures on the windowsill, as it was often below freezing outside at night, but the kalanchoe didn't mind it at all and set buds around the beginning of December.  Kalanchoe grow very slowly so it is only now in full bloom.  The upside of that snail pace growth is that the flowers last for weeks.

I give it a weak solution of fertilizer every month when it's blooming and I keep the soil on the dry side.  It is in a small pot.