Author: gardendaze
Rebirth
This little succulent spent the summer out on my enclosed porch. It wasn’t its first year out there.
But for some reason, at the end of the summer, it started to lose its foliage (if that’s the correct term for these sort of stick like succulent limbs).
I just stopped all moisture for about a month and brought it into the house, unsure if excess water, humidity, or some combination had gotten to it.
As you can see by new growth, whatever affected it has stopped. It is putting on new growth–even in our winter.
The last couple of years, it has flowered in early spring. We’ll see if it can recover enough to do that.
My Favorite Gardening Tool
When we think of gardening tools, we often think of hand tools like pruners, trowels, small spading forks or rakes, or maybe one or the more specialized tools like a Cobrahead or an Asian hand plow.
Or perhaps you are drawn to something larger. I have a fabulous upright weeder that I just draw toward me. It’s a small, specialized hoe, really, with a cutting blade on the inner edge. The handle is about 7 feet long. It requires a bit of precision to use.
Yet of all these tools, my very favorite is something that I use daily, 365 days a year. I just received my third copy at Christmas.
It’s a 10 year Gardener’s Journal. You can see the new copy, and my “old” copy, which I am about to finish, side by side in the above photo.
Here’s what the inside of the new one looks like so you can see why I write in it–and record the weather–daily.
But it’s so much more than that, since as you can see, the old one is twice as thick as the new.
I staple receipts from my plant purchases in there. I may staple larger plant tags as well on the design pages.
I will also insert notes to myself for the next season like “don’t buy anymore tomato seeds,” or “need bean seeds this year,” or “bean pole finials stored in potting shed this year.” You get the idea.
I will begin my third decade gardening with this system January 1. It definitely works for me. But even if this system is not for you, I highly recommend some sort of garden record keeping.
Wordless Wednesday–Merry Christmas
Winter Wonderland
About a week ago, we awoke to quite a little mess. The forecast was for 3-6 inches of snow, followed by sleet, freezing rain and maybe a little rain. Sadly they were very mistaken. Sleet and freezing rain fell for 12 plus hours. We were quite lucky not to lose power.
So when the sun came out the following day, it made for some fairly spectacular photos.
Unfortunately, it also made for some fairly treacherous conditions. I chipped at the ice on my driveway for 3 hours and managed to clean up just a 5 square foot patch. That’s when I realized that I wasn’t going anywhere until the ice melted–maybe 5 days from now.
I went inside and cancelled all my appointments.
Luckily a warmup is coming just before Christmas so I can get out and buy dinner. By then, my cupboards will be a little bare.
Do You Know Princettia?
On Monday I talked about the un-poinsettia or the anti-poinsettia. Today I am going to talk about a new cultivar called Princettia.https://princettia.eu/shop/compact/Princettia
What are Princettia poinsettias? They are trademarked poinsettias developed by Suntory of Japan. But basically they have been developed to be shorter, with more compact stems but much more floriflorous bracts (the colorful things that look like flowers.)
Right now they come in a few heights of white (yes, you read that correctly–not colors of white, but varying heights), a six different shades of pink (from pale pink through a more true pink to a deeper dark pink that’s almost fuchsia) and of course, a red.
If you remember the “rose” poinsettias from the last decade, these are probably comparable to those in number of petals–but of course, those were still like regular poinsettias in that they were tall–maybe even taller and narrower than some of the other varieties.
These are compact plants just covered in blooms–as one look at the web site reveals–and in person, they are stunning (as my unfortunate photography just doesn’t do them justice!)
They have been in cultivation for a few years but are just becoming readily available for gardeners. This holiday season, since we now know that poinsettias are not poisonous, perhaps you might like to try one?
Wordless Wednesday–Christmas Pinks
