Allium gigantium

Decided to dig these up. The cluster was nice, but I would like to have them spread around the garden some more. Allium gigantium makes a brief, very colorful show. Then the leaves die down and that's all for the year. This bunch consisted of one bulb, planted about 5 years ago. Now there are multiple. It's a very rich corner of the garden, lots of compost over the years. No surprise they've done well.

I will let these dry out until it's time to plant fall bulbs. They will be in the basement, cool and dry, stored same as onions. I'm impressed with the size, and number of bulbs. Also some little new starts, for future big bulbs.

Trigridia

First one I've ever bloomed. Nice.

Making Hybrid Iris, Iris update

An update on the seed pods.  They continue to swell.  Now the color is becoming more pale, starting to brown.  I take that as a sign if imminent maturity.

I walk past this every day. I water it occasionally so that it won't dry out. The original rhizomes are growing a bit as well.  The pine cones are an impromptu mulch additive.  I collect them when walking the dogs and throw them around on the mulch.  They add interest, and eventually break down like the rest of the bark chips.  They dont seem to cause a problem to the irises.

The edging rings are working well for keeping weeds out. I still go in and groom the soil a bit.  I pull weeds as soon as they are visible.  Irises that I have not dug up and transferred to the new little beds are more weedy.  This is easier to maintain.  Since I've watered these to get them established, they are growing more leaves.  I may stop watering them next month, so they can harden off for winter.  Some of these are miniatures that I rescued from a bed so covered with grass the plants were not visible, and most died off.  I'm glad they are growing again.

These rings are slightly raised above the surrounding area, to improve drainage.  They dry out quickly, which is what I want this winter.

Plums From Seed, part 2.

There are many conflicting versions regarding how to sprout wild plum, and other stone fruit seeds. I have a pretty good supply, from collecting plums. They have been washed and allowed to dry. Most are in an envelope after being allowed to dry overnight. Based on several you-tube videos, I chose 5 pits for removal of the hull. I used a vice grip so I could adjust the force, and because I don't have a nutcracker.

Vice grip and plum pits, dried overnight. These are wild plums. The pits are the size of a sweet cherry seed.

The first pit flew across the room. I used a little more finesse for the others. They cracked easily, releasing the inner kernel. Cool! They look undamaged.

I moistened a paper towel, squeezed out the excess, wrapped the pits, placed them in a ziplock back, and placed them in the fridge. Now I need to wait one to 2 months. After that, I don't know - if they start growing, it's the wrong season (fall) to plant outside, but maybe they'll grow on the window sill. I did a web search on coat removal and stratification and scarification. Coat removal would be a "complete" version of scarification. It appears that coat removal is beneficial for germinating seeds of fruits with pits, and many other seeds. In addition, stratification for peaches and plums, by refrigerating, shoulf last about 10 weeks. For example, from Iowa State Horticultural News, Cherry, Peach, and Plum (Prunus species) Harvest fruit when full mature. Remove the seed. Seed may be sown in the fall or stratified seed may be planted in the spring. Stratify the seeds at 33 to 41 F. The sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) requires 90 to 150 days, the peach (Prunus persica) 98 to 105 days, and European plum (Prunus domestica) 90 days. Seed of plums and peaches should be planted 2 inches deep. Sow the seed of sour cherry at a depth of 1/2 inch.

Garlic Harvest. Container gardening.

Garlic did very well in containers. Sine one container garlic was falling over and drying out, I pulled up about half. Here they are:

I left in the still-firm plants, only pulling out the drier looking ones. This is Inchelium Red.

Interesting variation of size. I really don't think so many could be grown in this size space in the ground. This is half of the container's plants. This method works very well for me.

Two grocery store garlic heads, average size, are shown for comparison. I'm amazed at the size of these garlic heads. This may be variety and technique. I think they are larger than last year's crop. They've had successive generations to adapt to my conditions - I think I've been growing them about 8 years. I will leave these in the shade and out of rain to dry out for a week. It's in the 80s outside. I'm not putting them in the sun - one ear when I did that, they cooked. They will be stored in the cool dry basement in a single layer, in a cardboard box.