Monthly Archives: March 2007

You Know You’re a Gardener… (#9 Quiz)

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You know you’re a gardener when… you take a “How much of a gardener are you?” quiz.

Your gardening self-score is 79%.

 

This is a pretty serious passion for you, isn’t it? You’re out there, digging, amending, turning the compost, killing the bugs or even encouraging the beneficial insects. When you can’t be outside because of weather, you’re inside studying, diagramming, building, planning. You get everything out of your garden that you put into it, and probably soon you’ll be scoring even higher on this quiz.

How much of a gardener are you?
Make a Quiz

I found this in penguingardener journal.

Aquilegia flabellata ‘Nana Alba’?

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Aquilegia flabellata 'Nana Alba'?

I am so excited to see that one of my four surviving Columbines planted from seeds is just beginning to bloom… I’m doubly excite to see that it may be Aquilegia flabellata ‘Nana Alba’ which I have wanted for some time now.

The seeds were sent to me by fellow LiveJournal/Flickr user, lblanchard/lb_philly… Thank you so much Laura… They were difficult to germinate, but a few did. When they were big enough to transplant, all the ink on the tags faded and I couldn’t read them, so I didn’t know what varieties I had. I basically have to wait until they flowered.

I’ll keep checking this plant until the flower open, so I can snap a photo of it :)

Busy Nights…

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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

I asked Micheal, (one of my best friends) who started his own garden design business a few years ago, if he wanted some Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearl’. He did, so I planted three more six-cell packs outside.

Later after dinner, I sowed more seeds from penguingardener (Maraming Salamat!):

– Tomato ‘Bloody Butcher’
– Easter Eggplant Hybrid

I then got zealous (is that the right word?) and even though it was late, decided to transplant the Tomato and some Eggplant seedlings into larger drinking cups.

Repotted Tomato Seedling Batch 1

OMG!!! That took a while… It was really really late, and I was only about half way done, so I decided to do the rest next next day.

Oh yeah… I found a mutant Tomato Seedling.

Mutant Tomato

This Tomato seedling either…
1. had a leaf bending down that went through a side stem, or
2. had another seedling fuse right into the stem, pinning one of its leaves.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

I started hardening off the Tomatoes and Eggplant seedlings I transplanted yesterday by taking it outside when I left for work, then bringing them in when I got home.

Michael emailed me asking if I can also plant some Bells of Ireland, so I passed by Target after work and bought some seeds.

I transplanted the rest of the Tomatoes into more drinking cups. I have so much!!! I think I have about 26 individual plants in drinking cups.

Repotted Tomato Seedling Batch 2

I then sowed some Pepper seeds:

– Tricolor Variegata Pepper
– Carmanola Rossa Pepper
– Topepo Rosso Pepper

The last two are from penguingardener (Maraming Salamat Ulit!):

I also performed surgery on three dying Coleus (Velvet Lime, Amazon and Dark Star Hybrid) that I mentioned yesterday.

Coleus I.C.U.

I really hope they survive!!!

Coleus I.C.U.

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We’ve had nice weather the past few days, but it started to rain today. I’ve slowly been hardening some of my plants and taking them outside, but I haven’t started on my Coleus… except of 4 healthy ones. I just don’t want to chance a few days of cold weather killing or weakening them.

Overwintering can be a pain to maintain, but keeping a majority of my babies alive is worth it to me. I’ve gotten a little bit discouraged because a few Coleus have died after all those months taking care of them… and the mealy bugs are driving me crazy!!! I hate trying to control them. At least, I think a majority of the ants are gone.

Earlier this week, three of my Coleus seem to have just wilted. One day they were healthy or semi healthy, then the started drooping… I think something happened inside the stems and water stopped going up (or something like that).

I’ve have to do emergency precautions and snip the tips which I think will survive, and immediately dip them in water to relive them. It worked for one at home; the other two are at work and I will see how responded in the morning. I hate seeing some of my babies in I.C.U. but last year I had one Coleus that looked like this… recover and look like this.

BTW, These are half of my overwintering Coleus which are at work:

Overwintering Coleus at Work 1 Overwintering Coleus at Work 2 Overwintering Coleus at Work 3 Overwintering Coleus at Work 4 Overwintering Kong Hybrid Coleus at Work 1 Overwintering Kong Hybrid Coleus at Work 1

I’m Going to the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show!!!

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I heard that the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show starts Wednesday, so I asked my boss if I can to take Thursday off so I can take my Mom to it.

I’ve never been to a Flower & Garden Show, so this’ll be an experience…

Lotsa Potting…

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

I hardly did any gardening today since I went to San Francisco and Oakland to hang out with friends. We saw Zodiac then had “tea service” at… um, I forgot the restaurant. Later, we did some shopping and had dinner at The Home of Chicken and Waffles in Oakland.

I also happened to see a common weed along the side of the road, but this one had variegated leaves, so I took a cutting. I’ll post a photo of it later, to see if anyone can identify it, since I don’t know its name.

Sunday, March 18, 2008

I took a whole bunch of photos in the garden today. I was going to take more photos, but the sun was kinda harsh. My mom was so cute; she helped my by holding a sheet of cardboard to block the direct light from the plants and flowers I photographed.

Siberian Squill   First Columbine Flower

My Mom also showed me a shrub that she had been growing for a few years. She said that this is the first time it bloomed this profusely. I asked he what it was, but she said she lost the tag. Anyone know what this plant/flower is?

Unknown Flower (2 of 3)   Unknown Flower (3 of 3)

I made some Orchid mix with some bark, perlite and charcoal. Initially, I was just going to pot the all white Cymbidium that I bought for my Mom, but she caught me and asked if I can pot the other Orchids she purchased at the SF Orchid show too… so I ended up potting about 3 Orchids.

Potted Cactus and Succulents

I also made a large batch of Cactus mix out for potting soil, perlite and sand. I potted most of my recent succulent purchases from the 99ยข store and the Sonoma Orchid show. I ended up potting about 18 Cactus and Succulents.

Lithops, Tomato, Eggplant and Pepper Seedlings

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Six day old Lithops seedlings:

Lithops Seedlings (6 Days Old)   Lithops Seedlings (6 Days Old)

2+ week old Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggplant seedlings:

More Nightshade Seedlings (2 Weeks Old)   Tomato Seedlings (2 Weeks + 2 Days Old)

Flickr Update: Collections + Layouts

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This entry is mainly for those of you who use Flickr.

Flickr has updated their site with a new feature called Collections. These are basically containers where you can put sets and or other collections. Think of it like folders for albums.

I just tested it out and created a new Collection of Gardening Events and Field Trips that I have gone to.

They also updated layouts of your first page, so you have the choice of small or medium (thumbnail) images. You can also have a side bar of our sets, collections or just fill the first page with images (no sidebar).