I brought the fragrant herb cuttings indoors. 29 Sept 24.

 I brought in the herbal perrennial cuttings.  Sage, lavender, rosemary.

It's interesting.  Most are not growing roots through the bottom holes yet, but they aren't wilting either.  So maybe they have baby roots?

Technically not a cutting.  This woody lavender stem broke off from the other that I dug out.  So I planted it.  The buds are emerging from the old wood.  I think they need to grow indoors over the winter.

I started the cuttings in August.  One pelargonium (geranium) cutting died.  This one took, growing roots through the bottom holes.

I tried starting rosemary from cuttings in water.  The didn't seem to take.  So I cut off the bottoms for clean cuts, scraped a little bark from the side, dipped in rooting hormone.  This one has roots emergi g from the bottom

So thats a couple of "free plants" for next Spring.  If you consider my effort is free and the tiny amount of rooting hormone is too low cost to measure.

Bringing Schlumbergeras Indoors. 29 Sept 24.

 With outdoor temps down into low 40s at night, I think it's time to start bring in the tender plants that I want to keep.

Here's the first batch.

The Schlumbergeras have started to make flower buds.

The seedling Schlumbergeras look good, but I don't know if they are ready to bloom yet.

I gave them all a little bloom food.

Replanting / Potting Second Rose Grown From Cutting. 24 Sept 24.

 This was actually a week or two ago.  Last fall or winter, I stuck hardwood  cuttings (prunings) from this rose bush, into vegetable garden beds.  This one grew into the start of a rose bush. I think it's an"Old Garden Rose" ie, heirloom rose.  The parent bush came with the house.

The roots look pretty good.  Sometimes I'm surprised at small root system of some roses.  I potted it onto used potting soil.

It had a tiny amount of wilting at the stem tips.  I cut off those tips.  There has been no additional wilting.

When winter arrives, I'll keep it in a sheltered location.  Bring into the garage if below freezing.

Here's the flower of this mysterious rose.   It has a strong, old rose fragrance.

Since I don't know the name, but I think it's old and a lot of old roses were French, for my own purposes I'm calling it "Rose mystérieuse parfumée" for "mysterious fragrant rose".  

Reviving A Chopped-Up Lavender Plant. 24 Sept 24.

 I found this lavender plant when I was doing some clean-up of an area that was taken over by thistles and blackberries.  When that area is done, it will just be mowable grass.

This plant was scraggly with long twiggy stems.  I attempted to dig it out, but accidentally chopped off most of the roots.  Oh well.  So I also pruned off most of the top, and planted it in a fairly small container, in used potting soil.

About three weeks later -

There are LOTS of new buds growing.  I don't know how much they will grow before winter.  I might need to keep it in the sunroom.  Also, I can't predict whether it will make a bushy plant.  With good pruning, I think it might.

This makes me wonder about internet plant growing lore.  So far, everything I've found says you can't cut lavender back beyond fairly young leafy growth.  So far, all of the lavender plants that I pruned severely has started to regrow.   Now wait and see.

More Lavender Air-Layers, & Update, Severe Pruning Result. 23 Sept 24.

 There were some really old lavender plants that had been overwhelmed by thistles.  I had read that lavender won't survive a hard pruning to woody stems, so just pruned the scraggly plants to their bases to get rid of them, when I cleaned up the thistles in August.

Those Lavender plants made a come back and continue to grow.

I noted that two stems still had about six or nine inches of woody stem.  Those are growing too.  Both have a severe right angle.  I decided to try air layering these stems to make new plants.

I want to layer them in containers.  It seems more convenient.  With the shape of stem, I need to insert the stem through the low end of the side of the containers, so I cut holes.

Then I trimmed growth from the part of the stem that will be buried.  I scraped bark to expose cambium.

I used a Q-tip to apply Dip-n-Gro to the stem, especially the exposed cambium.  Then inserted the stem through the hole.

Then filled with moist potting soil, firmed it, and watered in.  I did that with both of the longer stems.

They will just sit there by the parent plant until Spring.  By then I hope they will be rooted and ready to grow on their own.

Brugmansia in Bloom. 8 Sept 24.

 I think I've overwintered this one three times.  It took a while, but now it's demanding our attention.

Tomato Harvest. 8 Sept 24.

 

Tomatoes and a few poblano peppers.

Planting a Petite Negri Fig Tree Start. 8 Sept 24.

 This is the Petite negri start that I rooted via air layering this summer.

It lost a few leaves, but still looks OK.  Not as vigorous as Lattarula.

This tree will complete my border by the easement.  It didn't have a lot of roots, but they seem to be growing.  I bothered them as little as I could.

Filled in and planted, with fencing to protect from deer.

There are still a few months before winter.  I think it has a chance to establish before then.  I'll give it a nice mulch.

Replanting / Potting Rose Start from Cutting. 8 Sept 24

 This is a rose from the yard that I liked.  No label.  Last fall, I cut three mature sticks and pushed them into the soil in a garden container.  Two didn't root, but this one did.  They had no special care, other than watering.  (The white flower is a seed- grown, dwarf dahlia).

It was easy to dig it out of the container - I removed some of the side pieces first.  I could dig deeply from the side.

After removing the rose plant, I rinsed off the soil.  I wanted to plant it in potting soil, with a uniform consistency.

Then I planted the little rose bush in a container.  The tender growth wilted a little, so I sniped that part and placed the plant in the cooler garage for the day.

Sauce Tomatoes. 3 Sept 24.

 First significant crop of sauce tomatoes this year.

Xeric Groundcovers. I planted Manzanita and Rockrose Starts, 2 Sept 24.

 I ordered these.  The Manzanita should be very short and spreading, John Dourley.  They are tiny starts, may need a few years to fully spread.

The Sageleaf Rockrose is a bit larger, but I imagine it will also take some time.

Setting up Lavender Air Layers. 2 Sept 24.

 The lavender cuttings, that I set up Aug 8, don't appear to be growing so far.  I decided to set up a couple of air layers as well.

I drilled large holes in the bottoms of 3" plastic pots.  Stripped a fee inches of leaves from the bases of two branches of the parent plant.  Scraped an inch of bark.  Wiped that with Dip'n'gro.  Inserted the branch through the bottoms of the pots.  Filled with pre-moistened potting soil.

Done