Get Excited

As I have mentioned, I've had the succulents aloe and Cuban Oregano for a very long time. The aloe bloomed once in January 1999, which is said to be a rare event for an inside plant. (I have a very blurry photo of it which I'm not going to post, but that's how I know the date.) Supposedly the Cuban Oregano will flower, but I have never seen it. Due to months of greenhouse time last summer/autumn, the copy in our bedroom is one of the better ones I've had in a long time, and I got a little excited when I saw a flower bud forming.

But as it matured, I thought, "That looks like a petunia bud." Indeed it was. A petunia seed must have gotten into the Cuban Oregano when the two pots were together on the greenhouse bench last year. The leaves of Cuban oregano and a small petunia are somewhat similar if you don't look too closely, so I didn't think anything was amiss until the bud was well along in its development. It flowered yesterday, and it is smaller and more reddish than the very purple blooms of the assumed parent petunia (see previous post), so interpret that how you will. The petunia growing from the Nov. 15 cutting is a clone, so it has the same purple blooms as the original.

I also noticed that a bud is forming inside the Echeveria Lola pot, and that's not a petunia bud. Shifting gears, get excited about that.

Volunteer petunia

Echeveria Lola

Petunia Haircut

Last summer's petunia was threating to break out of its assigned space by the window and overtake the garage, so it got a haircut today. The last trim was in mid-November when it was moved from the greenhouse to the garage. Most of the foliage in the first image is new since then. The second image shows the pot trimmed back to about where it was 10 weeks ago. After the carnage, I was able to verify that there are three plants in the pot.

I had great hopes for the hormone-treated petunia cutting I took Dec. 31, but it was obviously fading away in the past week. I pulled it and there were no roots. So I'm officially 1-for-2 using rooting hormone on petunias, vs. 0-for-9 without. It's too soon to say on the cutting taken Jan. 26. But the first treated cutting taken Nov. 15 is a roaring success.

It's three more months until I can move these to the greenhouse so I don't believe the two thriving pots need any fertilizer. Based on what has happened so far this winter, the big pot probably will need another haircut in early April, at which time I will hit it with fertilizer. The smaller pot is so lush and green that it might get its first haircut around the same time if not before. I might even repot it.

Before

After

New cuttings. I used plastic cups so I can see if roots develop.

Nov. 15 cutting, growing like crazy. It hasn't produced many blooms lately but is packing on the leaves.

Succulent Review

Although I am trying to sprout some things in the garage, this is the slow time of the year for greenhouse activities. It seemed like a good time to add to my succulent collection. I had just four before going on a buying binge: Aloe Vera and Cuban Oregano which I have had for 30 years or more, a spiked aloe-like plant acquired from my brother a few years ago, and a Thanksgiving Cactus given by my sister last summer. The succulent expansion started two weeks ago with acquisition of a Jade, then mushroomed quickly with the addition of an Echeveria Elfstone, a Mammillaria Elegans Cactus, a Graptosedum California Sunset, and the lovely and talented Echeveria Lola. These first five came from Walmart. Yesterday I received a six-pack of Sempervivums with no ID tags from Plants for Pets via Amazon. I believe one of them is an Arachnoideum type with webbing over the leaves like a spider's web, and the others will go unidentified for now.

Walmart has an interesting way to display succulents. They unpack the box from Costa Farms or wherever, put the trays on the darkest shelf they can find, and forget about them. Succulents need lots of light and a little bit of water, and they get very little of either at Walmart. I feel like I'm the rescuer of the five plants that I have bought there. The local places I have investigated in Billings, Gainan's and Roots, both have some nice-looking plants but cost a bit more than Walmart. I particularly had my eye on a Haworthia Zebra at Gainan's, but didn't pull the trigger. Among the big box stores, Lowe's and Home Depot's have a few succulents and probably will have a better selection in the spring. These places have a lot of conventional house plants, but green leaves with no promise of flowers doesn't interest me.

Most of the succulents came in tiny 2-inch pots, but the Echeveria Lola came in a slightly larger 3-inch, and I thought it was big enough to put in a 6-inch terra cotta rather than the 4-inch which most of the rest of them received. The Sempervivum Arachnoideum also got a bigger pot. After I potted everything, I happened to Google "succulent pot size" and several so-called experts said a plant in a 2-inch pot should be repotted into a 2.5-inch or 3-inch, and anything bigger will kill the plant AND ALL OTHER LIFE ON EARTH. As explained by one source, "Too much space can actually prevent a succulent from growing much larger, because the roots spread out before the succulent has time to catch up. If you buy a two-inch succulent, a 2.5-inch pot is generally a good choice if you're planting it by itself." Got it, roots are bad. It makes no sense to me, but I'm not an "expert." I'm just going to be careful not to overwater and leave it at that.

We begin our photo tour with Lola and Arachnoideum in their lethal 6-inch pots.

Echeveria Lola will need bright sunlight to develop its rosy colors and keep its compact form. It will develop peach-colored, bell-shaped flowers. Like sempervivums, Lola can reproduce by producing new offsets around the base of the plant.

Sempervivum Arachnoideum has fine web-like hairs covering the leaves. There was a little dead-looking ball floating around in the box that I believe came with this one. I have a sprouting bowl with various leaves and cuttings, so I added the ball to that just in case there is still some life in it. I'm designating this as Sempervivum #1.

Mammillaria Elegans Cactus will develop a ring of flowers. You can see one little spot of purple a bit left of center.

The Jade that started it all. It originally had three stems, but one was rotted. I cut off the stem above the rotted part and am trying to root it and a stray leaf in the aforementioned sprouting bowl.

Echeveria Elfstone has red-tipped leaves, which aren't real apparent right now. It will produce orange flowers in the spring.

Graptosedum California Sunset is a hybrid of Graptopetalum and Sedum. Its pink coloration is most vibrant when under stress (bright sunlight, infrequent watering, cool temperatures). In spring it will have clusters of white, star-shaped blossoms.

Sempervivum #2 has five distinct rosettes. I tried to blow the dirt off after I repotted, but looks like I need to try again. Sempervivums have fine hairs on the leaves that make it difficult to dislodge the dirt. Canned air sends the soil flying without dislodging the dirt on the leaves so I might try a little brush.

Sempervivum #3. Two rosettes, purple-tipped leaves.

Sempervivum #4. Extensive purple in the leaves. Second rosette starting to appear. I didn't notice it when I was taking the portrait, but it is barely visible on the left.

Sempervivum #5. A perfect little rosette but no distinguishing features.

Sempervivum #6. Purple-tipped leaves.

Sempervivums are native to the mountains of Europe and are cold hardy, so should be able to handle Red Lodge Zone 5a. #6 (shown below) went into the plastic-covered mini greenhouse inside the main greenhouse. It has not gotten below zero inside the greenhouse yet this season, and the plastic cover on the mini adds a few more degrees of protection. It was a balmy 57.6 inside when I dropped it off today, and the 10-day forecast doesn't show anything colder than the low 20s. Good luck, little unknown plant, see you in the spring.

Feb. 3 update: With the weather lately, the danger inside the greenhouse is the heat, not the cold. Outside on Jan. 30 it was 45, but the sun boosted the temperature inside the greenhouse to 82, and inside the mini with the cover zipped to 107! #6 seems to have survived this ordeal. I decided to move all six semps (can I call you semps?) to the greenhouse, and they are on the bench, not in the mini. The overhead automatic vents still open as temperatures rise, and I also (1) set the main fan to come on at 75 degrees rather than 80, and (2) hooked up the heater to blow air (not heated) on the plants when it gets above 70. Part of the reason to move them all there is because I need the space in the garage. I'm moving most of the other succulents into the garage for a more seasonal temperature (garage temperature lowered from 55 to 50) and new grow lights which were installed today. I just put in another plant order, this time at Mountain Crest Gardens. Four new semps will go to the greenhouse and eight other types will go into the garage. Hopefully all will get enough light to bring out their best colors.

Moving on to the plant with many names that definitely is not cold hardy. After 25 years or so of calling this Greek Oregano, I identified it recently as Cuban Oregano, but it is neither Cuban nor an oregano. It from eastern Africa and is related to mint. It goes by a number of other names as well (Indian borage, country borage, French thyme, Indian mint, Mexican mint, broad leaf thyme, soup mint, Spanish thyme, Comfort Plant), and even has two Latin names, Plectranthus Amboinicus and Coleus Amboinicus. Whoever is in charge of such things have proclaimed that the latter name is the currently-accepted one. Apparently there is no dispute that the "Amboinicus" portion of the Latin names refers to Ambon Island in Indonesia, but as mentioned, it from Africa not Indonesia.

Anyway.... It has a distinctive aroma and can be used in cooking and in concocting home remedies, although I have tried neither. I just appreciate the smell from time to time. This is my best copy from last summer although it has gotten a bit leggy under the winter light. These are very easy to propogate; just cut a stem and stick it in soil. About 15 years ago, I stuck a cutting in the ground and it developed into a perfect mound about 18 inches across before an autumn frost killed it. Since then I haven't been able to to reproduce that success, but with access to the greenhouse for the entire growing season this year, I'm hoping to have at least four excellent examples in 8-inch pots by September.

Same goes for the Aloe Vera. I have four pots struggling through the winter, but I will repot the sprouts in a few months and come summer they should be thriving in the greenhouse.

Thermometer

I got a temperature and humidity data logger recently and have had it running outside the greenhouse for the past two weeks. The model is Elitech LogEt8THE, which does not have Bluetooth, so it needs to be plugged into a USB port to download the data. Although it will export to an Excel file, for some reason the data cells in the exported sheet are text, not numbers. Since I've been developing spreadsheets since before Excel even existed (Lotus 1-2-3 was the market leader when I started in 1986), it's not a tremendous task to convert to numbers, but it is an odd choice on their part.

With the heat off in the greenhouse, what I am most interested in is how much difference there is in low temperatures inside vs. outside. The answer (so far) is 5 to 6 degrees. The average difference using the new thermometer has been 5.2 degrees, ranging from 12.6 to 0.1. When I was using National Weather Service data starting Dec. 1, the average was 5.5 degrees, ranging from 14.0 to -0.8. (For some reason, apparently it was colder inside than outside on Dec. 11.)

The difference in daytime highs is less useful and it depends greatly on whether the sun is shining. There was a 42.3 degree difference on Jan. 22, obviously a sunny day. The smallest difference was 2.1 degrees on Jan. 13, obviously a cloudy day. With the new thermometer, the average daytime difference has been 27.4 degrees, just slightly more than when I was using NWS data.

On sunny days in winter, the greenhouse will get warm enough for the automatic roof vents to open. If it gets above 80, as it has four times this month of January, the ventilation fan will come on. Interesting, but it's just trivia. The important takeaway is, on average, the greenhouse will cool down at night to 5 to 6 degrees above the outside temperature. Officially, the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone for Red Lodge is 5a. With this incremental protection from the cold and complete protection from the wind, inside the greenhouse it is at least Zone 6a. This is in line with what the interweb says about greenhouses. There are four plant varieties trying to stay alive in the greenhouse this winter: Garlic and allium in the soil, mum pots buried whole, and chive pots sitting on the ground. I think they are all doing fine. Sage is supposed to be hardy, but what is above ground in the planter right now looks dead. We'll see if it springs to life in a few months. Next year is the big test. I will be trying to overwinter strawberries in the planters and in baskets. Supposedly strawberries are hardy enough for Zone 5a, but surely 6a is better.

That's next winter. Before then, sometime in April, I will turn the heat back on and get ready for petunias, which are hardy to Zone 9.

Greenhouse from Space

When we moved to our Montana house, Google got our address wrong for about three years. Anyone mapping to us ended up three houses too far north. Fedex was utterly confused by this for quite a while even though we have a large legible number on our house, but eventually they figured it out. Google finally took care of it after I sent in a correction. But some mapping apps still have it wrong.

So I was a little surprised to see that Google is on the ball regarding the greenhouse. I was looking at the satellite photo today and there it is. They must have updated the image within a few months after it was moved there in late July.

Ruth Stout Method

Ruth Stout (1884-1980) was a pioneering home gardener, an advocate of no-till. I heard of no-till for farming a long time ago, but didn't know what the advantages were. Simply put, they are reduced erosion, water conservation, reduced labor/fuel costs, and (here's the key) improved soil health. According to CropCare:

"Tilling destroys fungi and bacteria that would otherwise build communities in the soil and feed on its organic matter. Leaving the soil undisturbed lets the living things within it restore the nutrient levels that crops need to thrive."

Scale it down from a farm field to a garden, add a thick mulch of hay and leaves, and essentially you have the Ruth Stout Method which she started developing 100 years ago and started writing about 70 years ago. I first heard of her a few months ago when Kevin and Jacque of Epic Gardening demonstrated her method of raising potatoes — throw some seed potatoes on the ground and cover them with a mound of hay. No digging. Somehow it works, as proven in the Epic Gardening video.

Two of Ruth's books are on Kindle Unlimited now so I'm reading them for free. Without getting too deep in the weeds on the specifics of her method (read the books yourself), the following sentence from "The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book" (1971) summed up my feelings about the past 6-7 months of reading publications and watching videos about gardening in general and companion planting in particular:

"My quarrel with people who write about gardening (or any subject, for that matter) is that they often state as a fact something which they do not know to be a fact."

I'm going to plant marigolds, nasturtiums, basil and various herbs in and next to the greenhouse next year, plants which supposedly are helpful in the battle against harmful pests. But I don't know if any of this will do any good. At worst, I will have nice flowers and flavorful herbs scattered through the plantings of tomatoes and strawberries, and I will have to spray the pests with soap and Neem oil.

Her other book on Kindle Unlimited now is "Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, The Busy and the Indolent" (1963). Who can't get behind that? Since the two books are compilations of articles she wrote over the years, there is some duplication.

A prominent modern advocate of no-till (aka no-dig) gardening is Charles Dowding of Somerset, England. He has written a few dozen books, and one of them is now on Kindle Unlimited, "Charles Dowding's Veg Journal: Expert no-dig advice, month by month" (2014). (Note that Amazon frequently changes the titles which are free to read on Kindle Unlimited.)

Jade

Although I get to the greenhouse every few days to do off-season chores, in reality my greenhouse in winter is our garage, which currently is heated to 55 degrees. It has two south-facing windows and a closet with grow lights. With the door shut and the grow lights on, it gets up to the low 60s in the closet. With all of my garage space already crammed with garden and house plants at various stages of development, I decided now would be a good time to add more succulents to the collection.

The two plants I have had for decades are succulents (Aloe Vera and Cuban Oregano), and I do have a Thanksgiving cactus, but I decided to branch out and add a jade plant. I found a tiny one in a two-inch plastic pot at WalMart for $3.97. I potted it in a four-inch terra cotta pot using commercial cactus soil. Since this is going to be a slow-growing plant, I thought it would be a good idea to document the starting point so I can see if it is actually doing anything. The official height at the start is 2.25 inches.

My sister gave me the Thanksgiving Cactus last summer. I don't have a "before" picture to prove it, but I think it has grown quite a bit and is now six inches tall. It had been in a 4-inch pot with potting soil, and I repotted it in a 6-inch pot with catcus soil.

In all the reading I've done on succulents lately, rule #1 is "Don't overwater." I will try to abide by that, but the aloe and Cuban Oregano have always soaked up all the water I have dumped on them. I usually have four or five of each going at a time. Upon further reflection, perhaps it is no coincidence that my best examples of these two are in terra cotta pots which allow the soil to dry out, and the ugly-looking ones are in plastic pots which hold in the moisture.

Tunia Update

I watch too many YouTube videos. I see these garden influencers, or whatever they are called on YouTube, telling me that I need to get things started in January or IT WILL BE TOO LATE! Considering our official last frost date is June 20, it seems a bit alarmist.

But my date for planting in the greenhouse (with heat) is 6-10 weeks before that, so I have been starting a few things. I've been trying to get multiple pots of peppermint, rosemary, thyme and parsley started ever since mid-October because I want some now for houseplants in addition to some in the greenhouse next summer. The mint and rosemary are doing great. The thyme has one good plant (started Sept. 28) and one recent sprout that is still very tiny even though it came up almost three weeks ago. I have four parsley plants that are growing pretty well, but have been battling aphids. I've been spraying like crazy with soap, which takes care of them for a few days, but the few that survive start multiplying and I have to do it again. Fortunately none of the other plants seem to be hit with aphids. (Jan. 23: Ach! Aphids on some of the rosemary.)

I already have many of my seeds for next year. I planted three marigold and three zinnia in cells on Christmas Eve, and they started coming up just four days later. Some of them might be ready to move to 4-inch pots in a few days. I started three basil pots and one bee balm pot (with three seeds) two days ago and of course haven't seen anything yet. These are experimental starts, just so I have some idea what to expect when I do most of the seeding in March-April.

And then there are the petunias. As mentioned in the last post, Supertunias comprise the bulk of my order from Garden Crossings, and they are supposed to arrive in late April. But I've still got a pot of petunias that I didn't want to abandon to the cold in November because that was as good as it had looked all year. I gave it a trim and put it in my garage under a grow light. In the past two months, it has doubled in size and is flowering again. As mentioned in another previous post, I planted a cutting treated with rooting hormone Nov. 15. This is what it looks like today.

We have two south-facing garage windows, and I installed a shelf in front of one of them to manage the space more efficiently. It is working well enough that I have ordered another one for the second window. When I get that, I plan to move the main petunia pot to the window to get natural light all day, and I will move the cutting to the grow light location inside the very crowded closet. Here is a picture of the main pot, which I believe has three plants in it. As I said, it is probably twice as big as it was two months ago, and it needs a trim.

And finally, here is another cutting taken just eight days ago. It looks healthy. Based on the success of the last two cuttings I did which were treated with the rooting hormone (unlike the untreated nine failures), I feel confident in taking cuttings from the Tunias when they arrive.

This petunia is some sort of purple-veined, but I don't know what brand, if any. I bought a flat last spring, maybe at Home Depot, and stuck them in 14-inch baskets along with a few marigolds on our back patio. I thought I watered them often enough, but I never fertilized. When I got the greenhouse in late July, I decided to rescue the rough-looking petunias from the baskets and stick them in a big pot. They did pretty well, and when I started fertilizing them in October they really took off. I'm going to put the Supertunias in larger baskets, 16-inch, so hopefully I'll be able to get them to prosper. I'll find a place for a few of the legacy purple-veined petunias; where, I do not know.

Jan. 14: I received the new shelves and moved the big petunia pot to the window. This thing is huge. The #2 pot now gets the grow light.

Jan. 19: I gave the big petunia pot a spin and found this on the side that had been facing the sun. In the spots where there are no flowers, there are buds. I'm certain now that this petunia will not trail if I put it in a basket, so I have no plans to cancel my Supertunia order, but it does make quite a mound. I haven't fertilized lately and won't until April at the earliest. First, it needs a haircut.

My most recent petunia cutting treated with root hormone is giving me a bad feeling. It is developing a flower but the leaves seem a bit limp. I'll give it a few more weeks before taking it out of the pot to see if it has roots. The good news is if I want more cuttings, the big pot can supply hundreds.

Videos and seed ordering

I had knee surgery Dec. 1 and for the first few weeks while mostly confined to a chair in front of the TV, I immersed myself in gardening videos on YouTube and gardening web sites. I'm now up to 12 subscribed YouTube channels and have decided they fall into two broad categories: Experts covering specific topics with each video, and enthusiasts showing you what they are doing day-to-day.

On one hand there is Robert Pavlis (Ontario), who has Garden Fundamentals on YouTube, the web site gardenmyths.com, and several books on gardening in general and soil science in particular. He skewers many popular beliefs, such as "The myth of organic fertilizer." He explains the differences between synthetic (fast-acting) and organic fertilizer (slow release), but "The nutrients produced by both synthetic and organic fertilizer are exactly the same." If you disagree, send emails to him, not me.

At the other end of the spectrum may be Laura LeBoutillier (eastern Oregon) on Garden Answer. Although she is very knowledgeable (I'm going to go back and rewatch one of her videos when it comes time to plant strawberries), she pumps out videos every day or two. Not each one is chock full of technical information. Recent ones are more about holiday decorating than gardening.

Three of the channels are affiliated with Epic Gardening (San Diego), and I've watched dozens of videos from them. Although Kevin Espiritu and Jacques Lyakov have lots of information-rich videos, they also have many episodes that are "Here is what we are doing today." The channels serve as a marketing device for their online store. I actually ordered some seeds and grow bags from them, so I guess it works.

The last one I will mention is Up North Garden w/Corey, Corey Taratuta (Michigan). Most of his videos that I watch relate to petunias, specifically Proven Winners Supertunias and their competitors. Based on his review of online retailers, I actually decided to pre-order my Supertunias from Garden Crossings, also in Michigan.

I have already ordered most of the seeds and plants I'm going to need for spring. If I need anything else, I will try to find it locally. I went with four online retailers for various reasons:

• The Seed Plant has the cheapest prices that I can find for basic vegetable and herb seeds, less than $2 per packet and free postage. Seeds I have ordered from them include Waltham Broccoli, Imperator Carrots, Red Detroit Beets, Scarlet Globe Radishes, Italian Parsley, Evergreen Bunching Onion, Borage, and Boquet Dill. The first five were received and planted months ago, and the last three I received today. The only problem I see with them is limited selection compared to a behemoth like Burpee.
• I looked at fashionable sites like Johnny's Seeds, but I wondered if their products were worth the premium prices compared to a mass retailer like Burpee. So from Burpee I ordered Triple Treat Marigold, Double Dwarf Jewel Mix Nasturtium, Thumbelina Mix Zinnia, Royal Carpet Alyssum, Sweet Success Hybrid Cucumber, Monteverde Late Flowering Basil, Albion Strawberry (25 bare roots), and Montana Strawberry (1 plant). I received the seeds a few days ago and the strawberries will be delivered in April. I decided to sprout some of the zinnia, marigold and basil seeds, and already one of the marigolds is up after only two days. However, the basil envelope was completely empty, so Burpee is sending me another packet, hopefully one with seeds this time. I had to pay shipping of $17.90, but found a coupon code for $22.08 to offset it.
• The Epic Gardening 15-gallon lined grow bags were out of stock on Amazon, so I decided to order direct from the company. I ordered a few seeds at the same time: Wild Bergamot (Bee Balm), Teddy Bear Dwarf Sunflower, and Sweet Bell Blend Pepper. They also threw in a free packet of Lettuce Mesclun, a mixture of various types. I had to pay shipping of $9.99, which was partially offset by a coupon for $5.13.
• And finally, I ordered four pots of Proven Winners combinations from Garden Crossings, three plants each. The "Above and Beyond" combo includes three Supertunia Vistas: Bubblegum (the most popular Supertunia variety), Silverberry, and Fuchsia. "Beach Sunset" includes Supertunia Honey, Superbells (Calibrachoa) Coralina, and Superbena (Verbena) Peachy Keen. "Decadent" includes Supertunia Royal Velvet, Supertunia Latte, and Superbells Pomegranate Punch. "Moonlit Lavender" consists of Supertunia Hoopla Vivid Orchid, Supertunia Mini Vista White, and Superbena Violet Ice.
   
  Maybe it would have been cheaper to find Supertunias in the spring in the garden centers. Many of them, even the big box stores, do carry Proven Winners, but I doubt that their selection this spring will include everything I wanted. I selected these combos in part to make sure I got the Bubblegum, Royal Velvet and Latte. I will be testing my propogation skills. Delivery is May 11 based on my zone. I thought about getting an earlier delivery date, but then the shipment wouldn't come with the 30-day guarantee. I figure the pots will be growing in their greenhouse all that time so hopefully I'm not losing anything. I'm hoping these three-plant pots don't require much preparation to be planted into a hanging basket. Feb. 1: I got the larger quart pots and added some Sempervivums to the order to get free shipping. The flower order works out to $8.66 per plant.

In the spirit of the "Here is what I'm doing today" videos, I repotted what had become a Siamese triplet of rosemary. I planted seeds in a 4-inch pot Sept. 28, and four sprouted closely together. I took one out of the little pot a while ago, and the remaining three kept growing. Today I separated the three, rather roughly as it turned out, and gave them their own 4-inch pots. Here is one of them. I will find out how rough you can be with rosemary seedlings because after separating them, I ended up with mostly bare roots going into the new soil. I wanted six rosemary plants so I could plant some outside next summer, and if the seedlings survive this replanting trauma I will have seven in individual pots.

Due to my temporary infirmity, I have had plenty of time to plan. I'll continue trying to sprout herbs (thyme, basil) in the heated garage the next few months. Peppers and some others need to be started in the garage in early March. Using the mini and the heat mats, I anticipate starting most of the rest of the seeds in the greenhouse around April 1, at which time I will turn the heat back on at 32-35 just to keep everything from freezing. When I receive the strawberries and the Proven Winners around the end of April, I'll crank the heat up to 50 and get the baskets planted. Around May 1, I'll put the remaining strawberries and various direct-sow seeds (carrots, cilantro, dill, lettuce, flowers) into the greenhouse planters, and pot up/plant tomatoes, peppers and whatever else. Just about everything in baskets, pots and grow bags will have to remain in the greenhouse until June, so it will get crowded in there. In June, I'll move most of them outside (with cages), and plant the barrel and window boxes mostly with transplants of bergamot/bee balm, mint, dill, rosemary and other stinky herbs that are supposed to keep the deer away. I will probably have to keep the heat on standby at 45-50 degrees until about June 20, based on historical records. Such is life in the high country.

Petunia Autopsy

I took petunia cuttings Oct. 24 and Nov. 11 and have been caring for them in the garage ever since. There was no indication that they were quickly dying, and some of them put out flowers. But they were not thriving. I took one more cutting Nov. 15, this time using rooting hormone. Over the past month, this one surpassed the others, with greener leaves and a bloom. After a few weeks, roots were visible in the semi-transparent plastic cup, unlike the other cuttings.

Today I decided to take a look at one of the original cuttings to see if it had rooted. No, it had not. There is still some green in the leaves and stem, but this cutting never sent out roots.

That decided the fate of the other seven cuttings that had not been treated with the rooting hormone. They were discarded to make room for a larger pot for the treated cutting. The first image is the roots of the treated cutting. The next image shows the original petunia pot (#1), which has bushed out several inches since it got a haircut a month ago, and the rooted cutting (#2) in its new pot.

This new pot will live in the heated garage for the winter, but I did plant something in the unheated greenhouse today. I ordered a cheap mini-greenhouse (27.5x19x63 inches) to reside inside the big greenhouse to provide an even more sheltered environment for seed starting in the spring. I tested some arugula seeds for viability on Nov. 15, and to my surprise some of them sprouted within three days. I didn't know what to do with them, so today I planted them in a tray and put them on a heat mat inside the mini-greenhouse. I'm interested in seeing how much (if any) the heat mat raises the temperature inside the mini. My concern is that on a sunny winter day, the mini will heat up even more than the greenhouse and fry whatever is inside. The fan has kicked in several times the past week. The greenhouse temperature reached 87 on Dec. 15 when the outside temperature was 61. Yes, December 15th.

I left the watering can inside the mini, theorizing that it may help with humidity and heat retention. The front flap rolls down, sealing the heat and humidity inside and keeping any pests outside. That's the plan anyway. I put the arugula on a low shelf only because the heat mat cord isn't very long.

Update Dec. 20: It got down to 11 degrees outside last night, 21 degrees inside the unheated greenhouse, and 26 in the mini. The arugula is right on the heat mat and the thermometer is a foot above it, so the arugula didn't get frosted. We'll see what happens if it gets really cold. All of the water in the tray disappeared, so with the heat underneath it I'll probably have to fill that every few days. Today as I was emptying dead petunia cups, I looked at the other eight cuttings on which I did not use rooting hormone. None of them rooted. Without hormone: 0-for-9. With hormone: 1-for-1. Small sample size, but I'm convinced. Dec. 22: The plastic cover over the mini was fogged up today, so there is humidity trapped in there. (40 degrees and raining outside.) I added an extension cord and moved the tray to the top shelf, where it will get some light during the day when it is sunny (which today it was not). I brought my infrared thermometer to get a reading off the heat mat, and it was 70-72 degrees, which is at the lower end of its 70-85 specification. The arugula is alive, but is not bursting out of the tray. As I say so often when it comes to the greenhouse, "We'll see what happens." Dec. 29: He's dead, Jim. The arugula is frost damaged so I'm ending that experiment. It got down to 23 degrees inside the mini a couple nights ago. Even though that was 15 degrees warmer than the rest of the greenhouse and 30 degrees warmer than outside, and even though it was on a heat mat, it was not enough to prevent the arugula from getting slammed.

I picked a few carrots (which look good) and beets (which do not).

And finally, we have a broccoli head. It's only about an inch across, but it is there. The coldest it has gotten inside the greenhouse was 16 on Dec. 1 (outside -1). This plant is not exploding with growth, but it is slowly plugging away. I'm guessing if we get a week of sub-zero, that will put an end to it.