Strawberry Cleanup For Winter. 19 Dec 24.

 Here are the container "Ozark Beauty" strawberry plants, cleaned up for winter.  I uses a kitchen scissors to cut off all dead or dying leaves, and all remaining fruit clusters that were missed earlier.

I mulched with some loose straw bits for protection.  I moved the planters to a location that won't get rain, or too much sun, under the house eaves.

These will need dividing around March.  I planted five plants per container.  That's too many.  I will change to three.

Poinsettias In Full Bloom. 19 Dec 24.

 These are the poinsettias that I grew over the past year.

This one is in its third year.

I'm very pleased at how colorful it is.

This one is in its second year.  It's bigger than I want, but I'm still happy with it.  It's a very rewarding plant to grow.

I don't do any special darkness treatment, even though lots of websites say to do that.  I think our nights here are long enough. 

I think a key thing to do, is repot before starting to "over summer" them.  The peat is too easily dried and too difficult to re-wet.  I use a regular potting soil.  Also, they become top heavy, so I use fairly heavy ceramic pots.   In the summer, I try not to let them dry out completely.  I use a houseplant fertilizer (Schultz) per label instructions.

I want to keep these growing.  I may see if the variegated on can be pruned back a bit further, or re-start a cutting from it.

I don't want too many, but this week I added this small Poinsettia.

I don't care much for the other color varieties (white, pink, cream"), but I like the bright red and white speckles on the variegated ones.  This one is quite small, so I think I can get it started right in a good potting soil and good attention to pruning, early and short.

Lavender Seedlings. 25 Nov 24.

These are my second attempt at growing lavender from seeds.  I sprayed my first attempt with BT in an attempt to avoid fungus gnats.  That killed the tiny seedlings.

This is how the new seedlings look at about four weeks after sowing.  These are sowed on top of moist seedling mix, room temperature, under plant lights, no stratification.  Two cells weren't planted.

Those are starting to grow their first real leaves.  Pretty nice.

These are two or three weeks after sowing.  Same treatment.  I ordered a couple of additional varieties to try.

They are growing just as well, just a little behind because I sowed them later.

This will give me a variety of colors of blooms and plant type, for the xeric border and containers.  These varieties are described as very compact growing, and blooming the first year if conditions are right.

Lavender Cuttings And Indoor Overwintering. 25 Nov 24.

 I'm overwintering some lavender plants in the sunroom, with supplemental LED light.

This was a broken-off piece from a much older, dried out and almost dead looking plant.  I trimmed back the top and roots, and potted it in potting soil.  Given how it's recovered, I think it could become a nice bushy plant and bloom next year.  The shape looks like Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender) but I can't say for certain.

This one is the hybrid, Goodwin's Creek Grey.  I bought it at Winco.  It's a good variety, and kind of unusual.  I don't know if a lavender plant, planted so late, will survive bitter cold ahead.  So I'm wintering it in the sunroom.  So far, about three weeks, it's thriving.

This one is "French Lavender", Lavandula dentata.  I read that this species wont survive outdoors in bitter cold.  

I'm doing an experiment - one is planted outdoors in the border, one is in the sunroom.

These are cuttings I took last summer from a Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas) plant.   They are growing well, and have roots emerging from the drainage holes, but need shelter for the winter.  I'll plant them outside next Spring.

Here is part of my sunroom setup.  They are on a plant stand with LEDs.  They are doing pretty well, along with some rooted rosemary and sage cuttings.

Geranium (Pelargonium) Seedlings. 25 Nov 24.

 Geraniums (officially "Pelargoniums") are a favorite.  They are colorful, nice in the dry conditions, although in containers at least they do need watering and shelter from the worst sun and heat.  This year they gave a lot of color.  When I find one I like, I keep it going by storing the dormant plant in the garage for the winter, or starting cuttings to grow in the sunroom.  Some are five years old.  One is twenty years old.

This year I didn't care as much for some of the new store varieties.  They are hybrids between ivy leaf and zonal, growing from a tight cluster of leaves with huge pom poms of flowers covering the plant.  Nice, especially in the store, but more challenging to water n containerso because they shed water to the side.

I had a difficult time, finding varieties that I liked at the store.  So I decided to grow from seeds.  I chose the "Maverick" line, the red, coral, and white colors.

I started them now, because I read they are slow to get to blooming size.  Plus, it's something to do indoors  in winter.

I planted these a few weeks ago.  They germinated pretty quickly on the seed warming mat. 

Germination was about 50% to 75%.  OK, but I will start some more.  

These might be ready for the sunroom plant stand with LEDs.  Pelargoniums do well there.  They may also need individual containers and real potting soil, soon.