Back from Vacation. 10.11.14

At the Acropolis.  Oct 2014

Mosques, Istanbul.  Oct 2014.

 Ning and I went on a cruise vacation for 2 weeks.  Now returned safely.

I almost canceled - recovering from pneumonia and bronchitis, and side effects of work and Gleevec.  I thought the cruise would be healing, and it was.  Very worthwhile.

There were a lot of places - Venice, Athens, Ephesus, Istanbul, Naples/Pompeii, Rome, Florence, Toulon/Marseilles, and Barcelona.

I took more than 1,000 pics - easy to to with electronic camera with good memory card.  Very selective with pics to post - respecting the volume of memory needed, and this blog is really my gardening log.

When I was late teens / early 20s, I was a young soldier stationed in Turkey.  Getting to visit again was a bit of a bucket-list item.  That and Ephesus, and Rome, and Pompeii, and Barcelona.  I could not ask for more.

Four O'clocks, Ephesus Turkey, Oct 2014

In front if Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Oct 2014

 Since this was my year of the 4:00's, I liked seeing some in Ephesus.  Similar to some I grew here.

I tasted figs in Athens - larger but not as flavorful as the ones I grow.  I imagine that is because they need to travel from the countryside, so are not fully ripe.

Observing city and countryside trees and plants, there were lots of Sycamores, lots of olive trees, scattered fig trees, vineyards.

I-pad panorama views are pretty interesting.  They pull a lot into the photo.

As an autodidact student of religion and social history, I loved some of the places.  Example, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, built in the Christian Roman Empire, started in the year 537 possibly on older Christian and possible prior Roman or Greek Polytheistic temple site, some of the materials taken from the Ephesus temple of Artemis; with mosaics of religious figures, destroyed in the iconoclast period, sacked by the crusaders sent by the Catholic pope, rebuilt, then remade into a mosque by Ottoman Turks, victorious over Constantinople, becoming Istanbul, and finally, Ataturk, fed up with the intrigues and politics of the Caliphate, expelled the Caliphate and secularized the Mosque.  There has been some restoration, while still respecting the interplay of Christian and Muslim aspects.

Palms, Toulon France.  Oct 2014.

Sycamore, Topkapi Palace Compound.  Istanbul, Oct, 2014

 I am probably unusual in spending as much time admiring an ancient sycamore, as admiring paintings or sculptures, but that's how it is.

The Vatican / San Pietro piazza looks to me a lot like ancient Greek and Roman temples.

The Pantheon of Rome, built close to 2000 years ago and in continuous use, first polytheistic, then Roman Catholic, beautiful stone work, soaring spaces, and natural light via ostium at the summit.  Amazing place.

Inside Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Oct 2014

Pompei, with Vesuvius.  Oct, 2014.

Panarama inside Pantheon.  Rome, Oct, 2014

Panarama, St. Peter's Square, Oct 2014.

Night flower. Mirabilis jalapa. 9.1.14

Four O'Clock "Marbles" at 6am.  9.1.14

Four O'clocks, Morning Glories. 9.1.14

Four O'clock "Marvel of Peru" 8.31.14

Four O'Clock "Marvel of Peru".  8.31.14

The container Four O'Clocks have finished blooming.  They started early, and finished early.  The in-ground Four O'Clocks started later, and are continuing to bloom profusely.  They don't dry out as fast as the ones in containers.  I can see a role for both methods.

I transplanted some Four O'Clocks out of their deck box, into to soil in a secluded spot under the eves and now a bit cut-off by the sunroom.  They will be nice there.  The location is sheltered.  They should have a good chance to survive the winter.  I expect they will also drop seeds and may re-seed there too.

In the front bed, the 4 O'Clocks are among the brightest and most colorful plants in bloom now.  Daylilies are good, but need protection from deer.  Deer have not eaten any of the 4 O'Clocks.  Neither have rabbits.

Four O'clocks and other flowers.  8.31.14

It turned out that a June start for Morning Glories worked just fine.  I gave the plants to Ning and he planted them in his potager.  They are a nice mix of dark blue, light blue, pink and very light pink.

I was surprised that the foraging animals did not eat morning glories. 

This is a good learning for next year.  I like both of these plants.  I have not grown them before.  They are an excellent example of what can be grown from seeds, and much better than plants that are available in the nurseries and grocery stores.

Ning embraced pee-cycling with a vengeance.  His Four O'Clocks and Morning glories, and everything else, were fertilized with generous amounts.  They grew rapidly, to large size, and are blooming profusely.

Ning's Potager.  8.31.14

Hollyhocks, Carnations from seeds. Saving Four O'Clock seeds. 8.21.14

Four O'Clock Seeds.  8.21.14

Collecting 4:00 Seeds.  8.21.14

 I collected seeds from the Four O'Clock plants.  They might grow fine from the roots.  I collected seeds just because I can.

They are open pollinated.  There is a good chance they may not come true from seeds.  That's fine with me.

I just lean the seed-containing tips into a labeled envelope and shake.  The ripened seeds fall in with no effort at all.  In fact, moving the plants, lots of seeds fall off.

I labeled the envelopes with the color of the plant I collected from.  Even if they don't come true, If I start them next year that should give me a diversity of types.  I can grow separately from red, yellow, white, yellow marble, and orange marble.

This is about 6 weeks for the carnation seedlings.  I just sprinkled the seeds on top of the potting soil, scratched them in a little, and kept them watered.  I didn't know they would grow so easily.  Soon I need to divide them and pot them up either separately or in much smaller bunches.

The Hollyhocks are ficifolia  "Happy Lights".  I started them about 8 weeks ago.  I have other plants in containers, either Fordham Giant or Carnival Mix, that are almost ready to bloom, from seeds started mid June.  I mixed the varieties so I don't know which one.

Saving 4:00 Seeds for Next Year.  8.21.14

All of these are new to me.  It's great trying new plants.

Carnation Seedlings.  8.21.14

Hollyhock Seedlings.  8.21.14

New flowers in bloom. 7.5.14

Daylily I moved to the Battleground place, 2 months ago.  7.5.14

Crocosmia in bloom.  7.5.14

Four O'clock "Marvel of Peru".  7.5.14

 Some flowers in bloom around the Battleground 2 acres.  These are the first flowers here for the daylilies, Buddliea "Honeycomb", and the Four O'clocks.  The latter have barely begun.  The container plants are ahead of the in-ground plants.

Buddleia X weyeriana  "Honeycomb" 

Hummingbird on crocosmia "Lucifer".  7.5.14.  Photo by Ning Wang.

Deck Flowers. 7.2.14

Overwintered Dianthus.  7.2.14

Many of the deck plants resulted from overwintering deck plants from the past 2 or 3 years.  I simply let them dry out an keep them in the atached garage.  The dianthus overwintered on the covered porch, outside but out of the rain and next to the house.

Four O'clock "Marbles".  7.2.14

Overwintered geraniums.  7.2.14

 The four o'clocks will likely be  treated the same way.  It's 8pm and they are in bloom.  Today was in the 80s.

The geraniums overwinter very well.  The red is about 3 or 4 years old.  The smallest pink one was planted this summer.  The others are 2 or 3 years old.  Once they start blooming, they are impressive.

Four O'clock "Marvel of Peru".  7.2.14

Four O'Clocks. 6.26.14

4 O'Clocks "Marbles" 6.26.14

Four O'Clocks "Marbles"  6.26.14

 The first of the 4 O'Clocks have started blooming.  This is the 4th day of flowers.  The flowers last one day, then are shed.  Each flower has unique variagation, no two the same.  This is the variety "Marbles"   at 7:45pm

The first day there was only 1 flower.  The second day, 2 flowers.  Now there are dozens of buds in various stages of formation.

There are other colors.  One other plant is yellow on white, but no flowers today.

I have one of the variety "Marvel of Peru" that had one flower on the deck yesterday, yellow with bright red stamens.  No flowers today.

I think when they take off they have dozens of flowers.  Making a nice start now.

These are container grown, on the deck.  They have sunshine for most of the day.

Four O'Clocks "Marbles".  6.26.14

Four O'Clock "Marvel of Peru" Yellow.  6.27.14

Four O'Clock "Marbles" Yellow/White 4.27.14

Four O'clocks. 6.7.14

Four O'Clock "Marbles".  60 Days from Germinaation.  6.7.14

Four O'clock "Marvel of Peru".  60 Days from Germination.  6.7.14

These were planted early April.  Most seeds were germinated almost exactly 60 days ago.

The plants in large containers are doing best.  The temp in Vancouver is one or two degrees warmer then Battleground, and that small difference makes for much more rapid growth for some plants, such as these. 

They are getting 1/4 tsp miracle grow for tomatoes, in 2 gallons of water, with each watering.  

They seem to have nascent flower buds.  That would be nice.

Four O'clocks. 5.20.14

Four O'clock Seedlings.  5.20.14

 Four O'clock / Mirabilis jalapa seedlings are growing nicely.

The seedlings in planters are growing fastest.  I don't know why expanding the root space helps so much, but there seems to be a rapid burst of growth, after transferring plants to larger container.  Even though the seedlings were not root bound.

The container is on North side of house.  It gets am and pm sun, and in summer will get full day sun.

I have planted several in containers and several in the ground at the Battleground place.

They are not anywhere close to blooming but with the current growth I am optimistic.

I think starting them ahead is helpful.    So far the Four O'clock experiment is looking good.

Four O'clock Seedlings.  5.20.14

Four O'Clocks / Mirabilis. 5.3.14

Mirabilis seedlings.  5.3.14

The transplanted four o'clocks / Mirabilis jalapa are growing nicely.  The plants in Battleground have hail damage.  Despite torn leaves they look viable.  I planted several in deck containers in Vancouver.  They seem to take off and grow much faster, with more root room.

Some have some sun damage from the high 80s weather but they still look good.  So far, so good.

More seedlings to plant.  The lessons learned so far:

1.  Pre-soak the seeds for 24 hours.  Possibly up to 48 hours.
2.  They germinate much faster on a seed warming pad, and when placed between moist paper towels in a zip lock.  Germination is also almost 100% that way.  It's around 50% when germinated in seed medium on heating tray, and about 10% when germinated at room temp, even with presoaking.
3.  The seed medium should be left an inch or 2 below the container rim.  When they grow, they are floppy.  The extra space allows for more potting soil to be added on top, to help them stand upright.
4.  They don't seem to mind the cooler weather outside when planted.  The soil temp now is about 50 degrees.
5.  They are delicate.  Hail rips a lot of holes in the leaves.
6.  The variety "Marbles" seems to grow faster than the variety "Marvel of Peru".

Now to see if and when they bloom.

Container Plants. Flowers and Kitchen Garden. 4.29.14

Dianthus in container

Overwintered geraniums.

 Today was warm, into the 80s.  Nights are still in the 40s.  Prediction for tomorrow is 90.  Wow.

Of the container plants, I cleaned up the dianthus that overwintered outside in a sheltered location.  I sheared it to a compact shape.  There was an agapanthus that did not survive the big freeze.

Of the geraniums that I overwintered in the garage, all appear to have survived.  They have been sitting on the deck a couple weeks.  I cleaned them up, just using scissors to remove dead parts.  I did not attempt to make them into compact looking garden department plants.  I'm going for the "these are old geraniums like grandma had" look.

I planted some of the Mirabilis seedlings into another container.  They are a little floppy.  Sunday I planted several at Battleground, and there was a hailstorm that tore holes in some leaves.  Still, they look ok today - 2 days later.

Overwintered geraniums.  After cleanup.

Mirabilis starts in container.

 I've been shuttling peppers and Mirabilis inside/outside.  Now they are outside to stay.  Now I am moving them into more full sun.

Tomato and okra seedlings are still under lights.  Except the 2 Sungold plants I bought.  They are in containers and in the sun.

The two largest, oldest okra plants are now in a larger container, along with a seedling.  There are early pods on the two oldest plants.  Okra here is a total experiment, there is almost nothing saying they can be grown this way and a fair amount of info saying they cannot be grown this way.  All I want is a few pods now and then for soups or fry.  If I'm getting the starts of pods now, then maybe this summer there will be a lot more.  The two larger plants are Burgundy and Baby Bubba Hybrid.  The smaller one is "Dwarf Green Long Pod".  It may be a stretch to have 3 plants in one container.

Starts of tomatoes, Mirabilis, peppers.  First day in full sun.

At Battleground, I uncovered the peppers that were in the poly tunnel.  I replaced the polyethylene sheeting with deer mesh.  They look good, nice and green and ready to grow.

More plant starts in the sun.

Okra plants moved into larger container.

Seedlings. Progress report. 4.19.14

Okra 4 months indoors from seed

Seedlings under lights.  Peppers, Mirabilis, and Okra

Seedlings under lights.  Okra and Mirabilis

Seedlings under lights.  Okra and Mirabilis

 Indoor seedlings are at a point where I don't have enough room.  Soon most will be outdoors.

The first of the okra plants continues to be a bit anemic, but now has the 2nd flower.  The first fell off.  I speculate it needed pollinating.  This time I used a q-tip as the bee.  This variety is the more compact growing "Baby Bubba".  I think outside it would be much much larger.

The figs are all outside now.  Next, the pepper plants.  Under lights, the current phase is the last of the peppers, the last of the four o'clocks (Mirabilis), and then new okras.  Easier to type, "Mirabilis".  All of the new okras are germinated, still at the cotyledon stage.   These are on the north side of the house.  They get potential east and west sun, if the sun is shining.  Day by day, they'll move closer to full sun.  Today is raining.

When the rest of the tomato seedlings germinate, there will be room for those, too.

The larger pepper seedlings are moved to the south window, or outside on the North side of the house.  That's the ones that are not in the poly low tunnel.

Pepper seedlings in South window.  Also a ginger plant.

The larger Mirabilis are also moving outside during the day.  Those and the peppers are inside for night, and outside for day.  The figs are outside now 24/7.

This is a nice start for this year.  Making up for losing 2013 for being ill. 

I think that ginger needs repotting.  I will look for a container now.

Outdoor plant starts.  Figs, Peppers, Mirabilis.