Planting The Chili Peppers. 11 May 24.

 Given a day in the 90s and another in the high 80s, I'm motivated to get everything into the garden.  I had the peppers containers mostly ready, so it went pretty quickly.

I added home made bone meal and coffee grounds to the soil before planting.  The drip irrigation system is flowing all of the way through.  I might change the one high flow emitter to slow flow to match the other flow rates.

I also planted the two pots of cilantro with two groups of pepper plants.  I want to space out the cilantro this year.

When I feel good about the drip systems, I'll add a crunchy leaf mulch to all of the plants.  They also get slug bait.

Last year, most of these had three plants per container.  This year I'm planting two.  I think they will benefit from the space, especially since I think these hybrid plants will be more vigorous.

Up-Potting Red Mini Rose. 11 May 24.

 Similar to the yellow rose, I potted the red grocery store mini roses into a group pot (in both cases, I also kept a plant of each in larger decorative glazed pots).  

The red one is smaller.  I had kept it in bloom longer, and repotted on good potting soil much later - maybe a month?  They are doing fine but, again, the heat will be a big challenge to keep with.

I don't have a glazed ceramic container of the right size, so this will have to do for now.  I don't know if this one will grow as large as the yellow one, yet.

In this case, there are three plants in the container.

I tentatively identified this rose as Daniela but like the issue with SunMaid, I can't know for certain.

I am interested in seeing how these roses respond to the care I give them.  So far, they seem to be thriving.  

Up-Potting Mini Roses in a Group Container. 11 May 24

 With temperatures heading above 90 (Early May!), the small containers will dry out quickly and be harder to keep up with.  Also, the plants are big enough now, that they are top heavy.   I don't need so many individual plants.  So I opted to plant them in a large group pot.

This is the after photo.

I sat the potted rose plants in the partially filled container, to evaluate the fit.

The rose plants are very healthy, with healthy roots. The plants were not root bound yet.

I think they will do well in the group container.  There is a lot of root-room.  

I'm still not 100% certain of my identification of this rose as SunMaid Kordana.  There is no way to know for certain.   For example, Golden Aloha Kordana and Sunstar Kordana look similar, to my eyes.  Also, growing method, age of bloom, lighting wavelengths and intensity, affect the bloom.  I guess it doesn't matter, since I won't be propagating or selling any.  It is just for my own enjoyment.

Caladium Starting to Grow. 7 May 24.

 I kept the planted caladium tubers on the seed starting mat.  Two of the three tubers are growing, plus an offshoot from one.  This one is the most vigorous so far.

Shallot Seedlings. 7 May 24.

 The shallot seeds have been germinating.  They are uneven because they got sloshed around in the rain.  Still plenty for a test of how they grow and will they be worth it in the future.