Forsythia Cutting Update. 5.2.2021

 I have these forsythia cuttings in my home office window.  There are two pots with smaller cuttings that I scored and treated with Dip-and-grow.  They are in peat moss / perlite mix, seed starting medium.  They are covered with plastic sandwich bags.  At 4 or 5 days, no wilting.  There was slight wilting the first day.

There are also 4 cuttings in water.  They are much bigger.  I also scored them and treated with dip-and-grow.  I doubt that did anything, since the water probably washed it off.  It's possible some is absorbed and not washed off.

If all of these take, that's about all I think I need for a nice hedge.  If they don't, well they are free plants, so not a problem.  Plus there are the ones I have soil layered in the mixed hedge row.

One thing I'm guilty of that frustrates me when I'm reading other gardening blogs, is that the start is nicely presented, but there isn't always follow up.  That's especially true if they don't grow.  If they do grow, the info is easier to present.  I'll try to keep a record of how these do whether they grow or not.  I've read that forsythia can be started in water, and I think I have done it, but my memory isn't perfect.

Pansies. 5.1.2021

A few of the pansies that I planted last month.  These were purchased plants from Tsugawa.  They are in a vegetable raised bed.

 

Planting Cucumber and Swiss Chard Seeds. 5.1.2121

 Today I planted old cucumber seeds.  I forgot to plant the cucumber seeds I saved, last fall, so will go back and do that.  The potential problem with those is, I don't know if they were hybrids, so I don't know what they will be like.  I planted these seeds in 4 inch flower pots. 

I also planted some Swiss chard seeds, directly into the garden soil. Swiss chard is my favorite green, although sometimes they are other colors.

I planted a short row from each packet.  Those from 2014 are pretty old.  We'll see if they grow.

Lilacs Today. 5.1.2021

 The lilacs are in full bloom today, so I took a bunch of photos.  The two with more delicate flowers are Korean lilac.  Also there's a viburnum in there, which is not a lilac.  I imagine that the lilac bush in front of the house was planted by the first owners of this house.  Last summer I pruned out all of the underbrush and left it as a kind of grouped tree.  It's more airy that way and I think nicer.

Tomato Seedlings Update

 Here are most of the remaining tomato seedlings.  They are the dwarf  types and the Romas.

The dwarfing trait is already showing on the dwarf tomato seedlings.