Thursday, April 8, 2010

Good day for just browsing.

Cooler today, a bit of rain yesterday evening and i think a little overnight. The good thing about having the mini greenhouses is the waterproof  vertical storage. I just zip them closed before it rains and everything inside is safe...as long as the towers don't fall over.

I think i finally got the Jiffy mix in the flats to absorb water. It took a heating pad to warm it to the verge of melting the plastic of the flat and then putting them all outside on the pavement during our almost 80 degree weather from yesterday. Plus constant spraying under the clear dome.  It cooled off overnight quite a bit so i have the flats back inside to get a bit warmer before i plant them up.

But i did some houseplant maintenance, potted up some cuttings i had rooted a very long time ago that have been languishing on the windowsill in tiny glasses of water.
I don't have a lot of pots to use since i plan to pot some of them all up together in a display in a 10 gallon tank- terrarium style, so i used a soda bottle design similar to what is shown here:
Pop Bottle Pots

I found two more places that i'd like to buy plants or seeds at (quick, take my purse and put me in a straitjacket!)

This place has a great assortment of unusual flower seeds, most hardy to my zone 5.
Specialty Perennials

From what i understand, it is a one-man operation and he sometimes gets swamped with orders, so if you order, do so early and expect to wait a while lol

He has a wonderful list of Asclepiads -- aka, Milkweed...  or Hoyas! One of my most favorite groups of plants with fascinating flowers and yummy scents.
I have a house collection of Hoyas, i may begin collecting outdoor types, which are best known as the Milkweeds.  I'm kind of bored with many of the classic flowerbed plants so i think i might enjoy getting some great seeds from SP.

This store also has stuff i love, Hens & Chicks, Semps, Echis....etc.
Squaw Mountain Gardens
I spend a lot of time just looking. Many of these are hardy to my zone. I might re-do the spot i have the Silky Dogwood, Burgundy Hydrangea and the Purple Smoke Bush.... turn it into a rock garden... somehow.  I want to move the Silky Dogwood anyway. I love its berries, but its getting too ungainly and the three bushes are too big to fit well there now.

Anyhow, i got my Hen & Chicks seeds planted and i found a spot for the heat mat since i need to keep the flat at 70 degrees for a while.  They can germinate in a few days or it may be a year... we'll see how it goes!

I also managed to pot up the pathetic little horseradish roots i bought for around $4 at Lowe's.  I dug through the whole box, embarrassing my daughter, just to find the only bag with two roots that were at least the size of my index finger. I don't expect much from them.


So far today, no rain. Cloudy though.