Burrageara Stefan Isler

At least I think that's the variety.
I'm very pleased. I wondered if I could get it to bloom.

Iwanagaara Appleblossom "fantasy"

I'm a bit pleased with myself for blooming this again.

Starting Another Dendrobium nobile from a keiki

Dendrobium Yellow Song "Canary" grew a nice keiki so I decided to remove it and pot it up. Some of the web references, that I read, claim that keikis siphon energy off from the parent plant. Removal of the keiki ("keikiectomy"?) might help it grow and bloom. I don't know if the authors truly know that. But it's part of web orchid lore. There's also the fun of watching a new plant grow.

This was a keiki that I started in July. This was a nice, easily blooming variety, white flowers with blue fringes. It grew a nice fat looking pseudobulb cane, and now is producing 2 new sprouts. It's been getting the "weakly, weekly" 1/4 strength plant food treatment, high nitrogen growth formula version.

I've left it in the original container and growth medium. It may be good for another 6 months or year, before repotting is needed.

This is the Dendrobium Yellow Song "Canary" and keiki. I let it grow longer than I intended. I think no harm was done.


A section of parent pseudobulb is cut off along with the keiki. I don't have the fine touch, to just pull it off without causing damage. So I cut a section instead. The green root tips are a sign of healthy active growth.

Similarly, I removed the remainder of the cane, from above the keiki.

Some cinnamon is added to the cut surfaces. That's for mold prevention.
Resting in new container on bark-based orchid mix. Before adding medium, I placed the bamboo support stake into the pot. Easier that way. Less likely to damage the keiki's roots.
Now more bark medium is added. The top of the medium is at the juncture of keiki with stem.

Now it's just a matter of care. Same as an established orchid plant. I watered to settle it in, but will try to hold off more watering for a week or so. Probably best not to have watered the first day. I don't have the self discipline to wait.

Fig Progress Report

In another posting, the brebas on "Vancouver" (probable Brunswick) are shown.

Other trees with brebas now include Hardy Chicago (only a few, small), Petite Negri (few, small), Lattarula (more) and Desert King (many more).

I will try to avoid too much optimism. Brebas often enlarge then fall off. It would be great if they grow and ripen instead.

Meanwhile, I took the Desert King cuttings out of the refridgerator and stuck them into the half-barrel containers. I don't know if they will grow but the effort expended was truly minimal - I just stuck them into the growth medium such that about 9 inches was below soil line and 3 inches above soil line. If even one grows, I plan to start a tree to be kept in a less prime location. Then I expect to remove the existing tree. This is a long term plan. It takes about 3 years to reach significant fruiting stage.

Fig brebas, embryonic figs beginning to swell. Often, many if not most drop. I hope that most will stay this year.

One view of front border. The white flowers are "Stella" cherry.

A view of backyard orchard. I don't know the cherry varieties.

Pink Cherry in Bloom.

Each year, someone suggests this tree is either about to die, or that I should cut it down. Each year, it is more beautiful than the year before. Today the earliest blossoms are open, with many more to follow.

Tomato progress report

The tomato seedlings are almost too large to maintain outside now. The temperatures are still in the 40s at night, so too soon to plant outside unprotected.

I've been setting them outside in the morning, and bringing inside at night. The day temperatures are into the 50s and 60s, for the most part.

They are a little more leggy than I like, but still OK. If too leggy I can just plant them deeper.

I wasn't going to set up the "wall-o-water" units but under the circumstances, I think they are the best approach. I took the soil temperature, it's 50 degrees, so technically warm enough to plant. I will leave these units in place for 2 days then plant tomato plants. There will be some extra plants to try elsewhere. The arrangement is not planned. My garden not only has an "organic" soil/pest management/compost/plant food philosophy, but apparently has an "organic" constantly evolving shape. Not planned that way, but it is what it is. Nonlinear, no straight edges or 90 degree corners.

I planted 3 tomato plants in this barrel, too. One has a plastic container cover. I'll look around and see if I can find more, otherwise I'll buy something at the grocery store today. I think it's still too cool to have them completely unexposed, at least at night. A cover would also result in warmer soil & roots.

Doing what the honeybee does.

The sweet cherries and pears are blooming nicely. It's chilly and rainy outside at the moment. I didn't stay outside very long. I have a bad cold.

This is a 5-variety pear tree. I played the honeybee, using a paintbrush, taking pollen from flower to flower. With compact trees, it's easy to pollenate several dozen flowers in 10 minutes. That's plenty. Pears require pollination from a different variety. With a multigraft tree such as this one, I can go from variety to variety without going from tree to tree. The pollen is a bit wet. I don't know if that's good or bad.

I found the label for the Asian pear combo tree. The varieties from bottom to top are Shinseiki, Yonashi, Hamese, and Mishirasu. One is missing, I think Yonashi. Stock is OHxF 97

Container gardens, early spring

The potato project was described yesterday. Here are a few others.

The mixed winter greens an vegetables are behind last year. Radishes, mesclun, spinach, lettuce, and some scallions from seed. They are starting to grow faster now. The chicken wire protect from kitty cat and squirrel doing their gardening. It works. I planted seeds more thinly this year. Less need to think them out now. The green onions have all been eaten. I recommend that everyone who likes early vegetables and loves green onions to grow Egyptian Walking onions. One of the stars of the early vegetable garden. I have many more in the ground. Some of those are too big to eat now, which is good. That means more for later.

Another of the barrel planters. "Inch by inch, row by row. Gonna watch my garden grow." Or in this case, "patch by patch." If I get ambitious I'll add tops to the barrels. That will let in light and warm them up more. That's if I get ambitious.

The potato project was described yesterday. Here are some of the other containers.

The strawberries are growing nicely. Each plant has several leaves. These were the bare root plants that I started 2 months ago. They looked near-death. Every plant survived and grew. I see that some have a few roots above the growth medium. I'll add another inch. Enough to cover the roots. Not enough to cover the crowns. The white spots are crush eggshells. I use them to add calcium.

Peaches are still blooming. I usually go out with a paintbrush and play the honeybee, pollinating the flowers. This year I'm not. There are usually way too many pollinated flowers, resulting in way too many fruits. Then they need to be thinned. Good peaches only happen if they are at least a hand width apart. That's a fat hand like mine. Maybe 6 inches.. That's for genetic dwarf peaches. If there is a lot of leaf curl, many if not all of the peaches are lost, and pollination was not worth the effort. The trees are lovely. If they did not have peaches, they would be sold purely as ornamentals. That is, except here in the Maritime Pacific Northwest, where ornamentals that get leaf curl are not needed. It lookes like the infestation could be small. It's on some leaves. Not all tips. Leave curl results in a very pretty appearance at this stage. The leaves have a maroon variegated edge and start to become curly. Evil is sometimes quite pretty. It usually gets worse as the leaves grow. Wait and see. Treatment now is not helpful. Maybe the midwinter copper spray was helpful. I try not to get my hopes up. It would be great if that method worked.