Overwintering Geraniums. 6 Dec 2023.

 It's so easy to overwinter geraniums, I'm surprised more people don't do that.  Especially if grown in containers, all that's needed is to let them dry out and move into a cool, lighted place.  

I meant to let these dry out in the sunroom, but they continued blooming.  They give some needed cheer, and not much care is needed, so I let them continue.

I can just move them outside again in Spring.  They'll be much bigger than buying a new plant, and with a lot more flowers.

I do have a couple of geraniums in the garage, that I let dry out.

The sunroom now.

Schlumbergera Update. Seeds. 6 Dec 2023.

 The Schlumberas have been winding down, but still nice.

The first to bloom has a developing fruit.  I've been pollinating a few flowers for fun.  The fruits take a long time to ripen.  I'll just leave them alone as the plants over-Summer.

I also collected seeds from one that fruited TWO years ago.  The fruit was a bit wrinkly but still moist and soft.  I washed the seeds into a teacup.

Most of the seeds sank in the water, which I guess is a good sign.  I rinsed a second time, carefully pouring off the water, then planted the minuscule seeds on the surface of moist seed starting medium, gently pressing them onto the medium.

From what I read, they might germinate in a few weeks. I'm keeping them covered but in the light.

I saw this one at Winco and bought it.  The color was more purple under the store lights.

Reblooming a Poinsettia. 6 Dec 2023.

 In a reversal of overwintering flowers, I over-summered this poinsettia.  Basically, I treated it like any other container plant during the summer, watering and some fertilizer.  In the fall, I moved it into the sunroom.  I avoided letting it get any artificial light, just what the sun provided.  It rebloomed nicely, nice and red.

This is my first try at reblooming a Poinsettia.  Here are my observations.

1.  The original soil might be fine for greenhouse growth and transport, but has really lousy water retention and once dry, can't be re-wetted easily.  Once I repotted the plant into a "normal" potting soil, removing most of the old peat.   It did much better and was much easier to keep watered after repotting.

2.  The stems are quite brittle and break easily.  They need support or protection.

3.  The flower was smaller than for the purchased plant.  I still like it anyway, very pretty.

We'll see if I can keep it another year.  I'd like to prune it back a bit to make it bushier.

Meanwhile, I bought a new one at Winco.

We'll see how that over-summers too.  It's kind of fun doing that.

Blackberry Pruning. Late Nov, 2023.

 I finished pruning the thornless horticultural blackberry bushes.  The main one is the variety "Triple Crown", which is the best producing, best tasting and least trouble of the several varieties that I have tried (Until Ponca).  Triple Crown is quite vigorous.   

Each winter, I remove the old stem that produced this year.  It's done and won't bear again.  During the summer,  I tip the new growth at about four feet tall.  That produces new branches, that I prune back to about 18 inches long, in winter .  The exact length doesn't seem to be too important.

Finally, I covered the old tree leaf mulch with a fresh layer of tree leaves, about 6 inches thick.  I've done that for ten years.  The old gummy clay (winter) and brick hard clay (summer) is now a soft loam, like forest floor.  These never get fertilizer or summer water, and bear generous crops of  big, delicious blackberries each summer.

I have a second bed on the south side of an old shed.  They are not as old, maybe three to four years (Triple Crown from cuttings) and two years (Ponca, mail order).  The shed is ancient, snd sinking into the ground.  The siding is in bad shape.  I dug a trench by the shed, to allow the siding to dry.  I pruned the Triple Crown as noted above.  Ponca is a brachytic dwarf - the internodes are quite short.  So it doesn't grow nearly as tall as the others.  Ponca's berries are bigger than Triple Crown's and I think the flavor is the best of all I have tried.

The one caution I have about Ponca, so far, is the berries are so heavy that the branches break off.  I added a fencepost to tie supports for next year.

The brachytic dwarf character shows in this photo, with Ponca in front and Triple Crown in back.

Fig Tree Pruning. Late Nov, 2023

 I've been under the weather a bit, so haven't posted.  A couple of weeks ago I pruned the fig trees by the access road.  I think their last major pruning was two years ago, so they needed some shortening.  These don't bear a lot, so far.  I think that's the location which doesn't get a lot of sun, but they do bear some.  They are good for privacy in that location.

This is Brunswick.  I grew it from a cutting about 20 years ago in Vancouver, and moved it to Battle Ground about 10 years ago.   It did bear a pretty good crop this year, the biggest figs of any variety I grow, possibly the sweetest, and very nice flavor.  It is usually shy bearing.

This is Smith Fig.  It is roughly 8 years old.  The origin is Louisiana.  Many have considered Smith to be one of the best tasting of all fig varieties.  I agree, although this is not a prime climate for this  more heat adapted, variety.  So far it has been pretty shy bearing but had a great crop this year.  

This is Adriatic.  The figs are nice and big, but production minimal for me so far.  It's only about 7 years old.

Here is the row of fig trees.  It also shows a two year old Hardy Chicago and a 7 year old Champagne Fig.    Hardy Chicago has always been a great bearing fig variety for me, and good tasting figs with lots of "figgy" flavor.  Champagne is very mild, and so far doesn't bear well.

This pruning was fairly drastic, taking about 1/2 of the the height.  They are all about 6 feet tall now, a good height to manage growth, pinch stem tips to encourage fig production, and pick figs.  Deer haven't been bothering them.    By trimming back, they should also have more low growth, to help with the privacy aspect.  One drawback, pruning too much growth might delay production for a year.  We will see.

The last photo shows tree leaf mulch too.  I did not remove the dropped fig leaves.  By themselves, they don't make a good mulch, because they are so fleshy they break down too fast.  By adding tree leaves on top, they should stay almost weed-free for another year.  The leaves also build soil humus and soil life, and manage soil water.  I never water these during the hot, dry summer.