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Propagating Succulents

by | Mar 29, 2007 | Uncategorized

I heart succulents. They’re fascinating looking, so easy to grow, and thrive on neglect. The biggest threat to succulents in my area is frosts and freezes, which makes them good candidates for containers. I’ve been on a succulent kick for a few years now and noticed that whenever a leaf broke off and fell on the soil surface, I would often end up with a new plant!

Turns out tip cuttings root just as easily.

Here are the results of my first attempt to propagate succulents in flats. You don’t need to get that fancy, though. Pinching off a tip cutting and sticking it in the same or another pot in plain old cactus mix works just as well.


Some “mother plants”


flats of cuttings

tip cuttings and leaf cuttings

I experimented with leaf placement by sticking some upright in cactus mix, some on the soil surface, leaf base pointing up and some on the soil surface, leaf base touching the soil. They’re all rooting.

Ideally, you want to allow your cuttings to callus over for a few days in a dry, semi-shaded location before planting. Spring and summer are particularly good times for makin’ babies… succulent babies… oh, heck, all kinds of babies…

regrowth after tip cuttings were taken

baby!


leaf rooting in air!

To learn more about propagating succulents, this link will get you started: http://www.highcountrygardens.com/library/view/article/307/

I also referred to this book.

2007 San Francisco Flower & Garden Show

by | Mar 25, 2007 | Uncategorized

Here are a few snippets from this year’s show. The standouts for me were the really fabulous succulents, bromeliads, orchids and grasses. I managed to exercise self-restraint and only walked away with three 4″ plants from the Annie’s Annuals booth.

Missed the seminars and was especially bummed that I missed Amy Stewart… again. Also bummed to have missed Keeyla Meadows and Annie of Annie’s Annuals.

Welcome to the Cow Palace, where the lighting is famously ghastly, yet the bathrooms are sparkling clean.

Orchids!

If you have a weakness for summer bulbs like lilies, dahlias, callas and more… you’ll be a quivering mess when you enter the Plant Market.

More orchids!







Proven Bromeliads for Bay Area Gardens by the Bromeliad Society of San Francisco, featured super cool bromeliads and took home a Gold Medal. Congrats.



Flower lights

American Institute of Floral Design
Eye Candy – Crystal Award

Surreal.

Greenlee Nursery and partners

The Metropolitan Meadow: Driving Towards a Solution –

Gold Award, American Horticultural Society Environmental Award,
Garden Designers’ Award

I was impressed with how well this garden re-created a grassy meadow feel. It had a natural, ever-so-slightly haphazard look that made it look like undesigned design.

Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, there’s a giant red car plopped in the middle of the garden.


“Under the Sea” by Organic Mechanics

Fabulous plants, but you ain’t gettin’ me in that shell chair. Ouch! Congrats on winning Best of Show!

Old World – New World – Crystal Award
Would you like a martini next to a copper fountain while sitting on a tractor seat?

Or would you prefer red wine out of a jar? I’m a wine out of a jar kind of gal… Add some nice cheeses, cool music and it’s a party!

Very striking. Conceptual gardens normally bug me, but I really like this one.

Mark Morford thinks gardening makes you bland as milk

by | Mar 23, 2007 | Uncategorized

You read San Francisco Chronicle’s Mark Morford? I do, and while I love his writing style and irreverent reverence toward life and this crazy, mixed up world we live in… this morning he dissed gardening! Big time! See following snippet. For more context, read the whole thing.

Any thoughts on why gardening makes you “bland-as-milk” in Mark’s mind? Is it because posession of a patch of dirt on which to grow plants means you’re stuck in one place? Does it mean you can never travel because all your plants will die? Does it mean you never do anything crazy?

Can you be edgy and irreverent and still be a gardener?

Ok, well, I’m off to the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show. Ho hum. Yawn. Right? 😉

Is Your Fetus A Republican?
Soon, DNA testing will tell if your baby is gay. Or smart. Or the next George Bush. Ready?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, March 23, 2007

“Here are but a few of the imminent questions: What would you do if you knew your unborn child was, without doubt, destined to be gay? Or what if you knew your unborn had all the DNA markings of, say, a drug addict? How about if you knew he was genetically predisposed toward becoming, oh, a severe Republican, one with, say, a vicious hate-filled talk-radio show somewhere in the Deep South that ranted about war and gays and uppity wimmin and the need for more prisons and guns in the schools?

Would you celebrate? Would you scream? Would you abort? Would you call Fox News and demand your own reality show? Or would you immediately seek medical treatment to turn that hapless helpless bundle of goo and tissue and possibility into a nice straitlaced bland-as-milk moderate Democrat with a thing for gardening and the missionary position and tepid travel magazines?”

Read more. Then send an uppity e-mail to mmorford@sfgate.com. You cuh-razy gardeners, you. 😉

UCD Professor Art Shapiro’s Butterfly Studies and Website

by | Mar 16, 2007 | art shapiro, butterflies, sac bee, sacbee, sacramento bee, uc davis, ucd

Biggest butterfly net ever
Prof’s 35-year study flutters about on Web

By Matt Weiser – Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:33 am PDT Thursday, March 15, 2007
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B3

The article mentions Art Shapiro’s Butterfly Site, which has lotsa photos of lotsa butterflies. It’s a great resource. There’s also a great page on Butterfly Gardening in the Sacramento Valley and, in a quest for photographic excellence, a call for butterfly photos that are as good or better than photos already posted. You will be credited if they use your photo.