Posted on Dec 22, 2009 by DaMan
Last night I started the first batch of daylily seeds. This is my third year and I expect it to be my most successful. The following simply strategy seems to work best for me:
1. Collect daylily seeds through the summer and allow to dry (I do this by placing them in ziplock bags that I leave propped open for a month or so, in my office)
2. Place the dry daylily seeds in a storage baggie and label (parents of the hybrid)
3. Around Thanksgiving, place all of the daylily seeds into the frig in a tight ziplock bag. Each baggie should have a couple of drops of water placed into them.
4. Around Christmas, start to plant them in the biodomes provided by Park Seed (or something similar).
5. Place the trays in a window that receives some sun during the day.
6. 7 to 10 days later, they should start sprouting.
I'll check back in after Christmas with the results.
Posted on Dec 14, 2009 by DaMan
Central Virginia gardening has been a bit of a challenge of late, as we have received over 35% of a typical annual rainfall in these past 7 weeks. Rain is always a blessing, but this one is becoming quite painful. There are some beds (in the back) that have had a portion under water the entire time. We have not had time to dry up, so it has been brutal. One of my projects for 2010 is to take a first pass at getting a ditch setup to drain this water out. Unfortunately, the Country of Henrico will have to work with me, as I need the culvert where this water drains to be widened a bit. At any rate, I am sure that it will be an adventure.
The only gardening note that I have relates to my Cuban Oregano rootings. I started several and they were getting quite strong, so I placed them in the Greenhouse, expecting to remove them once the real cold set in. This only meant that I forgot about them, so the 21 degrees that we hit a week ago has whacked them good. They will not survive that brutal smack. I will either have heat or do a better job next year.
The camelia rootings continue to look strong. I think I will pot up the second batch soon and then the Daylily seeding adventures start!
Posted on Nov 22, 2009 by DaMan
It's been a good 3 months since I took my July cuttings of various plants from Wilton, 1699 and Charles City County. Yesterday was a good day to check on them and I had very good (to me) results.
Many of the Camelia had sprouted roots, but they were typically only about an inch or two long. They were definitely not strong root systems, but they were root systems.
Of the other tries (I believe there was a weigelia, a birch and a snowball bush), only the viburnum put on some roots. From my first batch, it appears that I have six Camelia and 2 Snowball bushes. My guess is that the deciduous items will root better if I try them in either December or March/April.
For now, I am probably going to keep the other cuttings in their rooting container. My primary fear is that the weak root systems will not be strong enough to support these things through the Winter if placed in a pot all their own. We'll see.