Tulips. 4.16.17

Container Grown Tulips Second Bloom Season.  4.16.17

 These containers contain tulip bulbs, planted deep, and daylilies planted more shallowly.  Last year, deer ate the tulips.  So far this year they have missed them.  So we get to enjoy the tulips.

Container Grown Tulips Second Bloom Season.  4.16.17

Graft Progress Report. New Grafts and Some Old Ones. 4.16.17

European Plum Yakima, Whip/Tongue. One Month.  4.16.27

Here are some of my grafts from late winter and from years before.  There are too many to picture them all.

The European pears here are on what was a new bare-root multigraft.  That may not give them the best start, but at least the buds remain viable after one month and are swelling.  Yellow Egg already had swelling buds, which may be why the new growths appear damaged.  It's wait and see to see if they grow.

European Plum Yellow Egg, Whip/Tongue. One Month.  4.16.27

Asian Pear Chojuro One Month.  4.16.17

 I think Asian and European pears are really easy  The grafts here are added to a tree of the Asian x European pear hybrid, "Maxie".  All but the Chojuro are from my own trees.  The Chojuro was from Home Orchard Society scion exchange last month.  The wrapping is different because I experimented with melted candle wax.  I think plastic strips or parafilm are probably easier to work with but they are all OK for the graft.

The Nijiseiki was from last year and is on a Hosui Asian pear.  It took and grew nicely.

The older grafts are examples of how they look after a few years.  With my plum and apple grafts, most of the graft sites are no longer easy to identify.  They merged together almost seamlessly.

Asian Pear Hosui.  Two Month.  4.16.17

Asian Pear Hamese.  Two Month.  4.16.17

Asian Pear Nijiseiki.  One Year.  4.16.17

 Chocolate persimmon grew about 3 inches last year.  Some species grow rapidly and long, and others take their time.  This year, I suspect it will grow the same as the stock tree, a Saijo persimmon.

Asian Pear Shinseiki.  Cleft Graft.  4 years.  4.16.17

The ginkgo grafts barely grew last year when I grafted them, but the buds remained healthy looking.  The understock did grow new branches.  This winter, I pruned off those new branches.  The first one has bud damage - slugs?  rabbits? voles? but the second one is looking OK.  These are as exciting as any, because they mean that I can keep the ginkgo tree, in a sense, that I grew from seeds that my Dad collected almost 20 years ago.  That tree is around 25 feet tall, so obviously I can't transplant it.  

Unknown European Pear on Asian Pear.  4 Years.  Whip/Tongue.  4.16.17

Chocolate Persimmon.  Whip Tongue.  One Year.  4.16.17

Male Ginkgo on Ginkgo Seedling.  One Year.  4.16.17

Male Ginkgo on Ginkgo Seedling.  One Year.  4.16.17

Dandelion Greens. 4.12.17

Good time for dandelion greens.  High in calcium, iron, minerals, and multiple vitamins.  I save the biggest plants for my salad raised bed.  Excellent, hardy, very early perennial vegetable.  Dandelions have been culinary and herbal stables for centuries in many countries.  It's too bad they are not better accepted here.  We like them in Spring salads.  The chickens love eating them any time.

This plant was in the yard.  It was so lush, I intend to dig it up and transplant to my perennial vegetable bed.

Starting Pepper and Other Seeds, Indoors. 5/12/17

 Today I started peppers indoors.  It is a little late, but I hope we still get a crop.  Our Spring is so chilly and wet, early plants just sulk anyway.  Maybe they'll get a better start than last year, when I started them much earlier.

I also started some greens seeds.

I added another batch of tomatillo seeds.  According to the catalog, this is a Polish variety better adapted to cooler shorter summers, compared to the Mexican types.Tomatillo Amarylla.  60 days.

Starting Seeds. 4/11/17

 Started seeds today.  This is later than I usually do.  I'm not sure there is an advantage to the really early start, especially for semi-tropicals like tomatoes.  They sit in the cold ground, sulk, and sometimes never have the vigor that later starts have.  This year I was not as enthusiastic in March, so here we are.  A lot of the packets are old.  I don't know about those 10-year old Celebrity tomato seeds.  That was my mom's favorite type.  No loss if they don't grow.

I usually try some reliable well established varieties that I know will do well, and some experiments.  The experiments are tomatoes, San Marzano (Roma type), Beaver Lodge and Glacier (early Northwest types), Longkeeper (one to keep for ripening past the normal potato season), Black Vermisssage, and Atomic. 

I also bought some Tomatillo Amaryllo, which might not be suitable for our cool and fairly short summer, but you never know.

My favorite tomato is Better Boy.  My favorite cherry tomato is SuperSweet 100. 


I had 2 types of collar green seeds, so I'll grow both and see how they do.    The collards from last year survived the winter, and the spring leaves are excellent to add to salads.  No holes from cabbage moths, they are crisp and mild.

Next to find the pepper seeds.