Propagating Succulents

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

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

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

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.

Compost... yourself!

Now you can... with EcoCoffins! Gardeney looking, huh?

Nursery profiles in March issue of Sac Mag

The March, 2007 issue of Sacramento Magazine includes a few nursery profiles, profiles on local Green Thumbs and a piece on backyard birding. Some articles are in the print version only and some are online. Check it out.

Sacramento City Cemetery garden featured in the San Francisco Chronicle

Great piece on Hamilton Square and Sharon Patrician in the Chronicle!

BEES ON THEIR KNEES, GARDENERS TO THE RESCUE
Garden blooms where dead lie in Sacramento
A pioneer cemetery tended by dedicated volunteers is also a nursery for native bees
Alison Rood, Special to The Chronicle

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Winter cheer

Hortus Botanicus Seed Packets

Now here's a cool way to make your own custom seed packets! I picked these up at Hortus Botanicus on my last trip to Mendo. Looks like they used coin envelopes and printed labels using their own photos of plants in bloom. Very classy and very clever.

Inside the envelopes, seeds were stored in smaller waxed paper envelopes. Germination instructions were tucked inside as well.

Not sure where to find coin envelopes? See this GardenWeb thread.

BOOK: Roses for Northern California

Just when I think I'm strong enough to look at gardening books online without being tempted to buy... I stumble upon Roses for Northern California by local rosarian Muriel Humenick. To make matters worse, it's brand spankin' new. Published last month. I have to at least put it on my wish list.

Sacramento Citizens for Sustainable Landscapes

New website: SacGardens.org

Upcoming meetings:

*FRONT YARD GARDEN MEETING*

To Organize Community Support for the Updating of
Sacramento City's Front Yard Landscape Ordinance
*To be voted on at the March 20th City Council Meeting*

Tuesday, February 27, 2007
6 pm to 8 pm

Sierra 2 Center, Curtis Hall
2791 24th Street
(parking off 4th Avenue - directions)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Front Yard Garden Ordinance is on
the Sacramento City Council Meeting Agenda

Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Council Chambers in City Hall
915 I Street

Catalogs for Garden Thrill Seekers

If the same ol' same ol' in mainstream garden catalog plant offerings just doesn't do it for you anymore, you might be a slightly jaded gardener. If, like me, you increasingly need a plant to be rare, or unusual in color or form, or organic, or gourmet, or an heirloom... or a rare, unusual, organic, gourmet heirloom that can only be purchased during a full moon in February in order to feel that high when you buy, you need to look for collector's catalogs.

Here are a few of my favorite garden catalogs offering the really cool and unusual stuff...

J.L. Hudson, Seedsman

StrangeWonderfulThings.com

Fraser's Thimble Farms (Canada)

Got Epis?

Kartuz Greenhouses

Heronswood

Plant Delights Nursery

You can also find some very interesting and exotic plant offerings on ebay. Just check the seller's rating before you buy.

Tulipmania

Ok, so the pansies are kind of disappearing, but... ahem... I did plant a lot of tulips.

Amy Stewart Valentine's Day article in the S.F. Chronicle

In flowers, too, green is the new red
For Valentine's Day, choose flowers raised organically and sustainably -- or nearly so

Amy Stewart, Special to The Chronicle
Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Flower Confidential book by Amy Stewart

It feels appropriate to have finished reading Amy Stewart's new book, Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers just before the Big Day... Valentine's Day. But, hey, maybe her publishers planned it that way so we'd really get it... so we'd already know which flowers to buy someone, where to buy them, when to order them, how to tell if they're fresh... and how to send the perfect message.

You've heard, "Say it with Flowers." Amy's book tells you how to "Say it right with the freshest, hippest, most beautiful and lasting cut flowers that also may happen to have been ecologically raised."

What I also learned is that cut flowers are incorporated into daily life in some countries. Ahem, Americans, you holiday-focused flower buyers. Live a little dangerously every now and then and buy flowers for your soul, not just the souls you're obliged to buy for.

After following Amy on this information-packed journey in which she takes a flower's path from conception (in the hybridizer's mind) to growth to processing to shipping to marketing and finally to its final destination, you will not only be exhausted for Amy, you will be much more savvy about the freshest, hippest, most meaningful and most extravagent floral offerings in the U.S.; and you'll know where to get the cheap stuff. Hey, nothing wrong with a budget bouquet... except that it might not last very long and it might have been treated to a pesticide drench. Don't eat the daisies. Really.

You will also become acquainted with a new form of labeling signifying higher ecological standards. Dare I say "guilt-free" flowers? Amy even touches on a store near you carrying high quality flowers at bargain prices. Any guesses?

Delving into post-harvest flower conditions, Amy tells you how to spot the freshest displays and how to maximize vase life once you get those babies home. You'll also come to understand why cut flowers can be so danged expensive at times, and you'll learn about the hidden and not-so-beautiful environmental costs and considerations.

I came away from Flower Confidential with a much keener sense of the business of flowers and a desire to buy organically grown and ecologically managed flowers when given the opportunity. Organic food is becoming mainstream because more people buying it... and more grocers are selling it... because more people are buying it. Now is the time to push the cut flower industry toward organic and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices, and toward providing better working conditions and benefits for flower factory workers.



Still, knowing "...the Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful..." about the flower business does nothing to dim the feeling I get when I walk into a florist shop or the floral kiosk at my local grocery store. Pure romance. Pure swoon. And to the flowers? You've come a long way, baby. No really. Holland? Ecuador? You look like you could use a drink.



Check out this video snippet of Amy talking about Flower Confidential:

Be sure to catch Amy on her book tour. She may be coming to a bookstore or garden show near you! Read all about it on her blog.