This was 5 days ago, so this is a delayed post.
The three bearded iris varieties arrived in the mail. It's all a risk, because I've had bad results many times. So we'll see.
These are the varieties Frimousse, Better Than Butter, and Society Page.
Here is one of the Lattarula fig tree air layers, that I cut off from the main tree exactly one month ago.
Roots have been emerging from the bottom water drainage holes.
I decided to plant it in the fig tree in the fig tree border. The reason is, the parent Lattarula tree is close to the house, and I eventually want to remove it. Lattarula is my most productive variety, big juicy, sweet figs. By air layering starts and planting in the fig border, I can save it.
I selected the spot where I want it, dug a hole, and poured in a bucket of water. Then removed the tree from its pot.
Lots of good roots! This is only 30 days after cutting the air layered branch from the tree!
I planted, and covered the soil with decomposed tree leaves.
Then a cylinder of fencing to protect from deer.
It will need a hardware cloth sleeve for protection from voles this winter. Basically, it's planted and ready for its new life. I won't fertilize until next Spring, because I don't want new, tender top growth now before winter arrives.
Here is the best of the lavender plants, that I pruned to the ground a few weeks ago. My intent at the time was just to clear up the area. I didn't expect the lavender plants to recover. i just wanted to cut them down. It looks like they are making rapid growth!
Here's the other one that I found at the same time. Also starting to recover.
I'm surprised they are growing. The web sites I read or watched, said this can't happen. Don't believe everything you see on the internet!
I found two more smaller ones today. They haven't been encouraged, and might just be smaller anyway.
I bought these, bare root, from an Amazon seller, in February. Previous post.
I planted them in patio containers. All of the plants grew.
I cut off all flowers until about mid June. I gave them a dose of miracle grow for acid loving plants. That seemed to stimulate them too much, so I waited a month and gave some diluted bloom food to stimulate flower production.
I cut off all of the runners when I see them.
These are a big juicy strawberry. Very flavorful. They are produced gradually, not all at the same time.
I think I planted too many in each container. This fall, I might try to thin them by 50%.
The other deck container is celosia. I think, Plumosa Glorious dwarf mix from Baker Creek Seeds.
These were the seed - started Mignon dahlias. About 18 inches tall.
Each flower has one to three honeybees. The other seed started dahlias have been bee - friendly too.
I put a label on each, hoping to keep track of them, dig up the tubers and overwinter this winter / fall.
This is the two- or three- year old Mandevilla vine that I overwintered. In April, I pruned severely and repotted in fresh potting soil. info 20 Apr 24.
It took a while for full comeback. That was a severe rehab. Here it is now.
Pretty dramatic comeback.
I can't recall what I did previous years. This time I used a dilute balanced fertilizer until it leafed out, then occasional dilute bloom food. No high nitrogen - I don't want long vines this time.
There are several plants in the border that I think I'd like to propagate for planting next Spring. If they root, I can keep them in sheltered location or in the Sunroom during cold winter weather.
I tried sage, Rosemary, and geraniums in water over the past few weeks. Not doing well, which might be the season or other factors. Sometimes it works for me for geraniums. I've seen on line that water works for rosemary and sage. One geranium cutting grew a root and is in soil now.
I didn't have more sage, so trimmed the cuttings in water back to fresh tissue. I did that for the rosemary too.
My cutting materials before trimming.
With the sage, I want fresh clean cuts in fresh tissue. Also, the leaves might transpire too much, so I trimmed them.
Sage cutting, before trimming. I used single edge razor blade for the sharpest, cleanest cuts.
Then I used a butter knife as a dibbler, made a hole in pre-wetted seed starting medium, and inserted about two nodes deep.
Cleanup of the rosemary cuttings was similar. Before and after trimming, same photo.
I also cut the apical growth. I don't know if that makes a difference.
The geranium cuttings. Before trimming.
After trimming.
Treatment of Spanish lavender cuttings was similar to the rosemary, except they were freshly harvested.
All planted.
Then I placed the pots of cuttings into produce bags. Four fit per bag.
I'm keeping them on the North side of the garden shed, out of the sun, Current temp is 70F.
Will they root and grow? I'll be watching them.
Still doing rehab of the border.
When I first planted the border, I moved some lavender plants there that had been in a wildflower meadow. I don't know the cultivar. They survived and grew, but during the past two years I was unable to care for the border. It was taken over, mainly by thistles.
Two of those lavender plants survived but were so scraggly and woody, I didn't think they could be rehabilitated. So I cut them off.
That was a week ago. Today I noticed there were multiple buds growing from the bases.
I recall a rule of thumb, it takes about 100 days for a fig bud to ripen into a full fledge, ripe fig. So from now, that would be about 14 Nov.
It's possible weather will be good until then. It's also possible, and more likely, there will chill and rain. Those conditions cause ripening figs to mold, and we lost the crop.
My biggest disappointments for fall ripening are Brunswick, Petite negri, and Smith. They are all excellent figs, but ripen so late that a get very few before they mold from the rain and chill.
I decided to do some experiments.
First, girdling. I noticed that the Petite negri air layer grew about four feet above the girdling. That tree grows very slowly, about a foot to 18 inches a year. I wondered about that. The leaves are also much larger. I think the difference is due to the fact that the leaves, which are the trees solar collectors, make carbohydrates that transport to the roots. Girdling removes the phloem layer, and stops that transport. So the carbohydrates remain in the stem, and in the case of the air layer, make top growth and new roots.
There are also hormonal effects that I don't know.
For fig production, the effect might be similar. Except instead of producing top growth and more leaves, or roots, the carbohydrates go into the growing figs. Possibly, removing the growing tip, would also help. I do that anyway. And removing any tiny fig buds that don't have time to grow and ripen,
First step. Removing a strip of bark (girdling). I used a single edge razor blade, and pushed it into the bark. Then around, sort of like a copper pipe cutter. Then must peel off that section of bark.
I did this on Brunswick fig. Also Petite negri. There was a fork, somI left one side without girdling, for a comparison.
I don't know if this will cause the inner wood to dry out too much. I wrapped tape on some. Most, I just tried to remove a narrow strip of bark to minimize potential drying effect.
I also tipped the ends to remove the growing tips, and removed the fig buds above the fairly large figs. To do that, I just bent the buds until they snapped off.
Below, snapping the growing tip.
Below, snapping of fig buds.
Will all of this help? Time will tell.
I did this for Petite negri, Smith, and mostly Brunswick.
This experiment suggests it might work, but I don't have any good details, so had to make it up as I went along.
I think this would do better in a patio container, like the others. Maybe it's not doing as well also because of being shaded by the peach tree. It does face South.
Similar story for the newer Silas Marner rose. It has a bit more competition.
I have two containers that I can use, to transfer them to the patio group. Maybe late this fall. I think they will do better there.
Roots are starting to emerge from the bottoms of the pots that I planted the fig tree air layers in, 27 Jul. Post here.
I think that shows they are settling in quickly. I did give sone diluted general purpose fertilizer. I move them into the garage on hot days. Mostly they are West of the shed.
I was surprised to see these. I did not hand pollinate this year. The top graft has died for one and not looking great for the other. So these are from the rootstocks.
My theory is that the top grafts eventually die off from delayed rejection, leaving offshoots to grow from the rootstocks. The rootstocks are seedlings from the varieties at the supplier nursery, so have so e potential to do OK.
Hollywood Plum.
Carini Fig - the first one this year. Richer flavor than I remembered,
Lattarula Fig - this year is giving some of the best so far -
Unknown Blueberry.
Triple Crown Blackberry.
Ozark Beauty Strawberrys, container grown, first year.
I'm quite happy with this harvest!
This tree is my favorite for flavor, but has erratic, often too-late production. I don't recommend it here as an "only" tree. But, the flavor is one of the very best. So I grow it among the others. The name is "Petite negri" but I've seen it given other names, "Negronne", "Aubique petite" and others. I never know what to call it.
Eventually I want to remove the fig trees, south of the house, to extend the wildfire mitigation zone. The tree is too big for me to transplant. Also, I moved it here from Vancouver in 2017. It was hard work, and it took a few years to recover. So I thought, if I can get a good air layer to work, then pamper the new tree, maybe it will establish faster than a moved tree anyway.
The air layer method was the same as for Lattarula, done at the same time. Link here. I did two for this tree. I removed the smaller one, higher on the tree, about two few weeks ago. It had minimal roots. I don't think enough to establish a tree. This one was an off-shoot at the bade of the tree.
So here's the "Burrito" air layer, with string removed.
It felt firm and hard, so I thought either the hot weather dried it out, or the air layer grew roots that dried it out. Checking under the foil, the soil was packed with roots. So I cut it off.
