Tree Planting Feb 16, 2013

One more tree. This is a Flowering Cherry.  Marked down to $20 from $59.99, a nursery left-over from last year.  I wasn't going to add more ornamental trees this year.  I gave in to temptation.  The price is what got me.  This is "Amanogawa" which is listed as fragrant pink single to semi-double flowers, growing to 20 ft tall and 4 to 5 feet wide with columnar habit.  It must be 12 ft tall already.  Maybe it will give more pollen and nectar to either the honey bees or the mason bees.   As a left over from last year, I expected it to be root bound which it sort of was.



Not too bad.  A few big roots at the sides.  I cut the ones against the edge.  I did not dig into the root ball.

 I used secateurs to make about 6 slices down the sides, cut off all winding roots, and cut off the bottom roots.  Not perfect but I think good enough

. Planted.  I added some Plant Success, mycorhizzal inoculant, while planting.  This tree has many flower buds.  I think it will be very pretty this Spring.  By planting now, it will have a chance to acclimate and settle in long before Summer.  There is a competing leader with a narrow crotch.  I will cut it off after bloom.  Might as well get as much flower as possible, this Spring.

Winter Planting. Grape Vine and Anemones.

I saw this grape variety at the local "Everything Store". Remembering, Buffalo is considered a Concord-like grape that bears in this cool summer area, unlike Concord. The plant looked OK, so I bought it and planted it today. Other plants in the grape / kiwi row have been harassed by moles, so I planted in a chicken wire basket. WA State extension lists these grapes as potential table grapes for this area:

Buffalo – midseason Concord type, blue
Canadice – early pinkish red (I have Canadice, the grapes are small and I'm not crazy about the taste) Interlaken Seedless – early white, vigorous (I have Interlaken, I like this one)
Jupiter – early, blue, large berries
Lynden Blue – very early blue, seeded
Mars – medium early, blue
Neptune – medium early, white
Reliance – early, red, table and juice
Saturn – medium early, red
Van Buren – blue Concord type, early
Vanessa – early red
Venus – early red (I think this is wrong. I have Venus, it's good but they are blue. I like Concord-type grapes better)
NY 78.836.06 – selection from Geneva, NY breeding program

I also planted these Anemones. I've read that anemones are both deer and rabbit resistant. After reading that Muscari are deer resistant, I planted quite a few this winter. Rabbits have eaten them all off. I'm guessing it's rabbits. We'll see what they think of Anemones. Soaked for 2 hours per label instructions, and planted in the tree circles.

Beehive Kit. Top Bar Hive.

This is the top bar beehive kit from Beethinking.com. I bought the kit at their shop in Portland a few weeks ago.

Nicely made. Much easier to put together than I thought.  Halfway there.

Not in it's final spot. I might apply a finish to the legs, to protect from rot. Otherwise it's all together and ready to go.  Front has a plastic window.  Open the shutter to view the bees and honeycomb.

Open top.  The to bars just sit in the frame, no assembly needed.

Charlie helped throughout.  He's very proud.

Winter Gardening, continued

Planted some seeds in the first "Conastoga" bed. That includes spinach, icicicle radish, napa cabbage, bak choy, seeds from garlic chives.  Pic from Bok Choy, ink and color painting on paper by Wu Changshuo (1844-1927)

I found some unplanted sets for egyptian onions.  I don't need more, but not wanting them to go to waste, so planted them.

Also, in unprotected bed, Laburnum seeds collected last week from Laburnum tree. So those seeds were exposed for winter, and stratified in situ. Those are along one edge of iris bed. Along another edge, Chinese chive, my Illinois strain.

Fig cuttings

These are started 2 to 4 weeks ago.  Depends on the cutting.  The Lattarula is covered on 3 sides with the start of roots.  What fig hobbyists call "root initials".  The Marseille black is not there yet.  I check every other day.  If the paper towel is looking moldy, I rinse the cutting and soak a fresh piece of paper towel to replace the fouled one.  Seems to be working.

Here are 4 cuttings in containers.  The Atreano was making top sprouts, so I potted it up.  It has initials but no roots.  It will need careful nurturing. The Sal's fig was a branch below soil level, that had tiny roots before I pruned it off, and when I removed it from seed starting medium I knocked off most of the roots.  Now it has tiny green buds swelling, so I think it is surviving despite my efforts.  The LSU Tiger cutting had roots about 2mm long, so time to plant that one in seed starting medium.

Today I scratched Plant Success (that again) into the top inch of each of these containers.  I don't think it will hurt.  It might help.

Of these, the Atreano, the LSU Tiger, and the Atreano were sent by generous Fig Forum members.  Response to my sending out cuttings last month.  Nice gardener neighborliness, from a distance..