Daffodils in Bloom. 3.18.18

 Full bloom time for dafodils. Each fall I buy a few bags of bulbs and plant them in random acts of daffodil planting. You never know where they will come up. Planting them is an act of faith, that winter will come and go, and we'll be here to see Spring once again.

Crinum Bulbs. 3.16.18

These were at Costco.  I bought them on impulse.   I had Crinums in the old yard in Vancouver, surviving at least 15 years, and the yard in Battleground too.  They come up every year, bloom for a while, and disappear.  The remind me of Lycoris, which I have never been able to establish. 

I planted them in a container with existing lilies.  Their flowers are transient, but nice.  We'll see how they do.

Venus Flytrap. Cool Stuff.

This is an experiment to see if I can embed videos.  This one is from Youtube, not something I filmed or grew.  It shows a Venus Flytrap eating a fly.  These plants have their own kind of nerve-like responses, and grab their prey after a specific number of movements.  I couldn't figure out how to embed this even cooler video from NY times, but here is a link.  Scienceline describes how the plants create electrical impulses from their trigger hairs, that serve as mechanosensors, back to the mechanical energy to snap shut around their prey.  The scienceline link also shows a Venus flytrap catching a small frog.

Inspired by my friend Jacob Farin at the carnivorous plant nursery, Sarracenia NW, I've started a new carnivorous plant blog "Beautiful Carnivorous Plants" also on the blogspot platform.

Plum Bloom Times. 3.15.18

Sweet Treat Pluerry.  3.15.18

It's hard to find overlapping bloom times for fruit trees. Many of the plums and hybrid plums need a pollenizer, but that only helps if they bloom at the same time.  In addition, for areas with late frosts, it's better to plant cultivars that have later bloom times.

So far this year, the following are in bloom at the same time.  These are early bloomers:  Sweet Treat Pluerry (hybrid plum / cherry with some peach and apricot in its ancestry), Crimson Spire ornamental plum (small but flavorful fruits), Hollywood plum, and Shiro plum.  My multigraft is blooming too, but I don't know the main variety - I think it's a pluot.  Methley plum is not quite open now.  Nadia Cherry/Plum is also on the verge, with a few blossoms open.

I removed some blooming twigs from Hollywood and Crimson Spire, and placed them into the branches of Sweet Treat, to improve the chances of pollination.  There are no honeybees around now,  but there are lots of tiny pollinating insects within the tree.  Since they don't appear to fly from tree to tree, I added those branches to improve the chances of good pollination.

Starting Seeds. 3.15.18

 Now the seeds are tucked away into a seed starting tray.  I like to start peppers now or a little earlier, and tomatoes a little later, but there is flexibility and you never know what the weather will do.

This time I tried 3 different types of sauce tomatoes, which I process and freeze in the summer and freeze for winter use.  I go through a lot of those.  "Roma" and "San Marzano" always seems to have a lot of blossom end rot, which none of the others have.  Last year I added more lime, but there was still blossom end rot.  So this year I'm trying 3 other types of paste tomatoes: "Big Mama" hybrid from Burpee, and "Ranger F1" and "Heinz 2653" from Territorial seeds.  I'm holding on cherry tomatoes, because there are always lots of started plants of those in the Spring anyway.  There are also my favorite, "Better Boy", and some others for early crop ("Beaver Lodge 6808 and Glacier") which did seem earlier last year, and some experiments.

 For peppers, my favorites last year were the Jalapenos, which were productive and earlier than some of the other chilis. I'm trying a different one, sold as "Early Jalapeno",  I had too many cayennes, so just one cell of those, and Sweet Banana, Bird Thai, Mini Bells, King of the North, Peter Pepper, and Tabasco.  I think the Tabascos are later but would like to make Tabasco sauce this year if they do produce.

I also threw in some hybrid Collards (Hi Crop F1) and Brussels Sprouts (Franklin F1).  I've never grown Brussels Sprouts before, and I don't know when they are best planted, but it wont hurt to experiment.