I saw this tree with reddish leaves on a tree at our church’s parking lot (Northern San Francisco Bay Area/zone 9b).
Anyone know what this tree is?
I also have another photo here.
I saw some seeds and collected some.
[Update] It’s Purple-leafed Hop-bush – Dodonaea viscosa ‘Purpurea’ (Family: Sapindaceae)
This morning, I was waken up by another earthquake. It sounded like someone pounded on my bedroom window and shook my loft bed… and since I was up on my loft bed, I thought to myself that I need to get down, just in case. I then saw on the news that it was another 3.7 magnitude earthquake and the epicenter was about at the same location as yesterday’s earthquake; about 6 miles south of us.
I’ve been watching YouTube quite a bit lately and have learned a lot about gardening, sewing, quilting, cooking, DIY projects, etc. There are several YouTubers who I admire and watch regularly… and this got me thinking… Maybe I should make some videos to add to this blog… So later this afternoon, I got out my FlipVideo MinoHD camera which I hardly use, since I don’t really do much video, and gave it a try. I got this camera as a gift for being the employee of the year at my previous job.
My first attempt was just an introduction to my seedlings in newspaper pots sitting in the front yard. I basically, showed my various Bok Choys, Chard, etc. It was though getting into it, but after a while I just kept talking and talking… which was weird, because I felt like I’m talking to myself.
I then shot another video of me transplanting my Daikon seedlings into a Dirt Pot fabric pot. I’m trying an experiment to see if how well Daikons will grow if I sowed them indoors under grow lights until they have sprouted for about 3 day, then hardening them off outside for a day or two. They were a bit leggy, but I buried them deep so the first set of leaves where just above the soil line. I haven’t had any luck growing Diakons in the past and hopefully this method may work, since it’ll be in full sun in the front yard.
I noticed that the volunteer Bells of Ireland plant was all dried up, so I pulled it up and collected its seeds. The bract-like stuff surrounding the seeds were aged and looked like lace… (I can’t think to the word for this process)… Many of the seeds already fell, so we should have some volunteers, but I’ll still plant all the seeds I collected into a 1-gallon pot to winter sow. I’ll transplant them once they sprout and develop a few leaves.
A bunch of plants in pots are in need of a bit of soil replenishing, before they started actively growing. First, I just added compost, azomite and worm castings to a small Daylily ‘Frank Hals’ pot to bring up the soil line.
I then emptied the pot of Orange Bottlebrush Ginger which really needed repotting. The roots were massive and winding around several times. There were two distinct branching of the Ginger corm and I decided to divide it in two. I didn’t really know what to do, so I just pretended it was a Bearded Iris. I cut a majority of the root ends leaving about 4 inches on the corm and broke away the oldest corm segments. I then repotted the two cleaned up corms into a larger 5-gallon pot. I hope this encourages this Ginger to flower. Its only flowered once in the past and I was away, so I didn’t see it.
I found another small pot of a Peruvian Daffodil which I think will benefit with new soil. I dug the bulbs up and there were 5 healthy bulbs all close together. I can’t remember how many I originally started with and I can’t seem to find a record of when I bought these. I spread the bulb apart and repotted them with some added compost, azomite and worm castings.
My brother gave me three Langka (Jackfruit) seeds. I didn’t know they were so big. Now I got a new propagation project.
My Masdevallia Orchids in the hanging wooden pots I made are doing quite well. I replaced the string from the two of the pots where hanging on with much stronger galvanized wire.
The flowers of the Masd. Huayna Picchu and Masd. Ruby Slippers ‘Baby’ continue to bloom…
I see a new Masd. Huayna Picchu flower spike forming. It’s interesting how many tiny spots there are on the flower and the flower spike.
I took dead leaves off Masd. Red Panda, but I noticed that it has new growth.
Told my Mom that as one of my Orchid flower matures, the bottom petals cross over. She replied, “just like what I do in my exercises.”
I divided the Dragon Fruit Cactus and potted it up into a larger terra cotta pot. Hopefully, it’ll continue to grow larger.
I noticed that the Euphorbia platyclada has tiny little dark yellow blooms, which are not noticable until you really look at it closely.
On the opposite end, the Rebutia krainziana is putting up very noticeable yellow blooms. This is the second round of blooms for this cactus this year.
I noticed that the two Japanese Long Purple Eggplants both have fruits. One has three and the other just one… but they both continue to have flowers, even though they are still just about a foot tall. I hope they grow taller.
I planted two more Coleus pots today. In one pot that I found the Plectranthus argentatus ‘Longwood Silver’ in, I planted a big dark maroon leafed Coleus with no name.
In another pot, I planted:
– Coleus ‘Sedona’
– Coleus ‘Electric Lime’
– Coleus ‘Mariposa’
For some reason, some of the leaves on the Tomato ‘Rutger’s Select’ are burning from the sun, but the other Tomatoes next to it are fine. I hope that they’ll be okay and just keep growing.
I harvested some seeds from a plant I purchased from Annie’s Annuals, but I can’t remember what it is called… something Tips… I’ll have to look it up…
12:27am The Winged Bean that I soaked wasn’t doing anything, so I took an xacto knife and carefully removed the bean’s coating… #
2:45pm It was so fascinating seeing Cocoa fruits in a Kashi commercial. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before. Had to rewind it several times… #
2:46pm Found about a dozen Pineapple seeds in a Pineapple… Guess what imma do with them?… #
4:28pm Grafting European Pears, Asian Pears, Persimmons and Apples… #
5:37pm is out in the backyard planting tons of seeds… #
Just received some seed swaps in the mail:
Emerald Giant Pepper: Folia stash | Folia wiki
Black from Tula Tomato: Folia stash | Folia wiki
Golden Marconi Pepper: Folia stash | Folia wiki
