Tag Archives: coleus dark star

Lots of Gardening Done Today…

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Went to a couple nurseries and big-box home improvement stores looking for 1/4 inch drip irrigation tubing with emitters spaced 6 inches apart. I didn’t find any but got a couple of plants.

New Plants from Mid City Nursery

I got the following from Mid City Nursery:
– Celery Folia 6 cell-pack (I’ve never grown Celery, except for the Asian Leaf types)
– Red Russian Kale Folia 6 cell-pack
– Tree Collard Folia 4 inch pot with 2 plants which I later divided into two pots Flickr
– Coleus ‘Dark Star’ Folia
– Coleus ‘Big Chief’ Folia

I also bought a bag of Bonsai Mix which I will try making some String Balls planters with.

As I putting things away in the patio, I found a box that contained Gladiolus, Dahlia and Asiatic Lily bulb/tuber/corms that my brother bought at clearance a month or two ago. They were not in good condition, but I thought I would go ahead and plant them just incase I can save them.

Asiatic Lily 'Stargazer'

The plants included:
– Asiatic Lily ‘Stargazer’ Folia
– Dahlia ‘Heat Wave’ Folia
– Gladiolus ‘Wigs Sensation’ Folia
– Gladiolus ‘Pastel Mixed’ Folia

Pear Tree Pruning + Zinnias, Strawflower, Coleus and Herbs sown…

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It’s the first of June, but it’s seems like it’s winter or early spring. In fact, it was raining for a bit this morning, but luckily it stopped by the afternoon.

Dead Pear Branches

I did major pruning on our four pear trees. I noticed that there were a lot of dead branches, so I pruned anything that was dead. I didn’t get everything, and I may leave one of the tall branches in the middle Bosc Pear since I noticed that that where our neighborhood hummingbird loves to perch and sing. I still have more to prune, but it was getting late and I was getting tired.

Dwarf Border Sunflower Potted Up

Before going in, I planted the 5 Dwarf Border Sunflower plants into a 5 gallon container. I’ll move this to the front later this week.

Zinnias and Strawflower Sown

I also sowed Zinnia ‘Whirligig’ Folia, Zinnia (Fall 2005) Folia and Tall Double Strawflowers Folia.

Inside, I sowed 8 kinds of Coleus from seeds I saved:
– Coleus (Unknown Burgundy G2-2006/2011) Folia
– Coleus (Dapple Apple G2-2006/2011) Folia
– Coleus (Sedona G2-2006/2011) Folia
– Coleus (Amora G2-2005/2011) Folia
– Coleus (Kong Green G2-2005/2011) Folia
– Coleus (Kong Salmon Pink G2-2010/2011) Folia
– Coleus (Dark Star G2-2005/2011) Folia
– Coleus (Splash G2-2006/2011) Folia

Coleus and Herbs Sown

I also sowed some herbs:
– Basil ‘Hybrid Thai Lemon’ Folia
– Basil ‘Lettuce Leaf’ Folia
– Basil (Sweet, Chia brand) Folia
– Perilla frustescens (Shi-so) ‘Vietnamese, Tia To’ Folia

New African Violet Baby + First Coleus Pots…

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I finally see a sprout emerging from the African Violet (Variegated) Folia cutting I planted on May 13 (about 29 days ago).

Variegated African Violet Baby

When I got home from work, I made three Coleus Pots:

Coleus Pot #1: Colorblaze Dark Star, Gay’s Delight and Unknown from Sloat (Yellow Scalloped).

Coleus Pot #2: Unknown from Sloat (Red Autumn-like), Wizard Jade, Wizard Coral Sunrise and Wizard Scarlet? (Red Yellow-edge).

Coleus Pot #3: Radical Wonder, Colorblaze Royal Glissade and Rudy Jewels.

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!!!

Unusual Coleus with Three Leaves per Node

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As I was planting my Coleus into pots on Sunday, I noticed that two of my Coleus were a little unusual. Instead of the usual two leaves per node, these had three leaves per node. Hmmm? Mutants?

One was a ‘Dark Star (Hybrid)’ that grew from seed…

Coleus 'Dark Star (Hybrid)' (3 Leaves/Node)   Coleus 'Dark Star (Hybrid)' (3 Leaves/Node)

…the other was ‘Velvet Lime’ cutting from last year.

Coleus 'Velvet Lime' (3 Leaves/Node)   Coleus 'Velvet Lime' (3 Leaves/Node)

A Few Baby Coleus…

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Here are a few of my Coleus babies I have growing in my bedroom.

Coleus ‘Twirl-a-whirl’ (Last years “Mama” plant) + (Cuttings and Hybrids)

Coleus 'Twirl-a-whirl'   Coleus 'Twirl-a-whirl' (Cuttings and Hybrids)

The larger plant on top (of the above right photo) are cuttings I took from the mama plant on the above left photo. During the winter, it has lost it’s swirling petticoat leaf shape and turned greenish orange. It will most likely return to it’s darker swirling leave once it returns outdoors.

The two cups on the bottom (of the photo above right) contain seedlings from the same mother plant as the above cuttings. Two are almost a pure chartreuse while one is chartreuse with a purplish vain. The one on the bottom right is a kaleidoscope of green, burgundy and reds.

Coleus ‘Dark Star’ (Last years “Mama” plant) + (Hybrids)

Coleus 'Dark Star'   Coleus 'Dark Star' (Hybrids)

Coleus ‘Dark Star’ hybrids grown from seeds harvested from the mama plant on the left.

Coleus ‘Rustic Orange’ (Last years “Mama” plant) + (Cuttings)

Coleus 'Rustic Orange'   XXXXXX-XXXXXX.jpg

This cutting (of the above right photo) barely made it… I had it overwintering at work and it died back to almost nothing. I brought it home, took new cuttings (with leave smaller than half an inch) dipped it in rooting hormone and planted them directly in moist perlite. It has really sprung back to life!

It’ll be interesting to see how all these turn out, especially the hybrids.

More Seedlings…

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The Sugar Snap Peas, Roma Tomato, Clemson Spineless Okra and Hybrid Summer Boy Chin-Chiang Cabbage have sprouted in 4 days.

…and last in the Coleus seedling race: Coleus ‘Dark Star’ who took 8 days to sprout.

Anxious…

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I thought I’m really tired and it’s really late and I have to get up early for a funeral tomorrow… I’m anxious to sowed another batch of seeds. Seeing how quickly my first Coleus emerged, I’m sowing another 12 pack Jiffy Mini-Greenhouse with 6 types of Coleus (2 Jiffy pellets each):

– Coleus ‘Kong Green’ (I couldn’t tell if these seeds were good)
– Coleus ‘Dark Star’
– Coleus ‘Amora?’
– Some type of red coleus (Coleus ‘Tabasco’ maybe?)
– Coleus ‘Tilt-A-Whirl’
– Coleus ‘Kong Scarlet’