Red Geranium

I took cuttings last fall of four geranium plants (at least three different kinds) and stashed them in the garage. All four survived, but the coloration of each now is very different. I crammed all four of them and some petunias into a big pot. The geranium at back left is almost chocolate brown, back center is dark green, and back right is very red. The geranium at left middle is a normal green.

Internet research indicates geraniums turn red from stress, which can include temperatures below 55 degrees. I heated the garage to between 50 and 55 all winter. Obviously not all varieties handle a chill the same.

The other occupants of the pot are descendents of petunias from last year's pot. (To the left is the original pot, which isn't looking great for some reason. Current working theory is alkaline water.) The two with purple-veined blooms are cuttings, in other words clones. The red bloom at lower right is from a volunteer petunia that grew from seed. The only petunias I had around last year were the purple-veined ones, so I concluded that the color does not breed true. The plants hidden in the center among the geraniums and hanging over the front also are volunteer petunias, so we will see what color(s) their blooms are.

You always hear about how invasive mint is. I had one mint pot that invaded by a volunteer petunia. I decided to dispose of that particular mint and decided I could not save the volunteer due to the possiblity of fragments of mint roots mixed in with the petunia roots and taking over a pot like this. There also is another volunteer petunia in a 'Velveteen Aromatic'™ pot. It is almost too big to transplant into this pot. It has a couple of blooms developing.

Beer and Citrus

As I was wandering around Nana's greenhouse yesterday, I came across a Proven Winners plant labelled 'Cerveza 'N Lime' Plectranthus hybrid. It looks identical to the plant I have been calling Cuban Oregano and which I have been growing for more than 30 years. In January I found a Latin name for it, Plectranthus Amboinicus. So we are on the right track. Since Nana's is selling these for $7 each, I have a fortune in my greenhouse. On the left is Proven Winner plant, on the right is mine.

As I understand it, all the name 'Cerveza 'N Lime' does is establish a trademark. Mine does not smell at all like either beer or lime, and I realized later that I should have taken a sniff of the PW one. The Spanish word may be an homage to some of the inaccurate names by which this plant is called, including Cuban Oregano, Mexican Mint, and Spanish Thyme. It is related to mint, but its region of origin is East Africa and Southern Asia. Lime, perhaps because of its color. I could not sell the plants that I have been propagating for more than 30 years using PW's made-up name, but I could give my version a funky new name and claim it as an unregistered trademark. Registering the trademark with the Patent Office gives more protection, but it costs $350 and I doubt I will ever sell enough (if any) to justify that cost.

Here is a supersecret photo smuggled out of the greenhouse where the plants are being propagated. May I introduce Plectranthus 'Velveteen Hammer' ™, "Velveteen" beause of the fuzzy leaves and "Hammer" because...I don't know.

Try again. May I introduce Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic' ™. I could add "variegata" to the name, but truth be told the faint yellow rims on the leaves are probably a nutrient deficiency and not variegation. I'll give them a feeding on Fertilizer Friday.

Later that day: I found another example on several succulent sites. It's called Plectranthus tomentosa 'Vicks Plant.' Google AI claims it is called 'Vicks Plant' because it smells like Vicks VapoRub. Uh, sure. It looks just like my 'Velveteen Aromatic.'

'Unboxing' Day

Customer service at Succulents Depot finally got back to me, and said it was OK to cancel my April 5 order as they were still working through a backlog caused by East Coast weather-delayed orders. There were some things I would do differently based on what I have learned in the past nine days, and this gave me the opportunity to start over. I have reordered some items from them (see below), but my first stop was Nana's Bloomers in Laurel to pick up an Echeveria 'Topsy Turvy' I had seen there a few days ago. 'Topsy Turvy' was the main reason for the original Succulents Depot order, and I ordered two of them. At Nana's, I picked out the nicest plant I could find as there were no longer any pots with two plants. There were other items at Nana's that I could not match exactly from the cancelled order, but I picked up two SunSparkler Sedums and a webbed Sempervivum. Cue my rant about unidentified succulents, but the Sempervivum is a nice-looking plant.

So there actually wasn't an unboxing, except of the new heater that arrived unannounced from China. There has been no tracking update since the 9th and still isn't showing that it was delivered. Here is the result of today's shopping. Front row from left, SunSparkler 'Wildfire' Sedum, SunSparkler 'Lime Twister' Sedum, Echeveria 'Topsy Turvy,' and the Sempervivum. Back row, the new heater, Supertunia 'Blue Veined' and Supertunia 'Hoopla Vivid Orchid.' "Wait what?" as my grandniece would say. Yes, I bought two more Supertunias. Either I'm going to have two fewer strawberry baskets, or I will have Supertunia baskets with multiple plants.

I saw a few 'Blue Veined' blooms and they resemble the petunia I got last spring. I don't remember where I got that one because I wasn't writing overly-long blog posts about plants then. However, I saw pictures of the Blue-Veined on Proven Winners Direct, and it looks much whiter than what I saw at Nana's. I'm looking forward to a comparison. Also, it seems like the known Supertunia blooms are larger.

I potted up all eight Supers in 6-inch pots. The original six were in biodegradable Proven Winners pots and they were starting to, you know, biodegrade.

I'm hung up on a trip we are taking in early May and how I am going to set up the irrigation to keep everything watered. It is conceivable that the Supers might live in those 6-inch pots until May 13, and the same for the strawberries that are scheduled for hanging baskets. I have enough irrigation tubing for me to string it up in the air to water the baskets, but I just don't know if I want to. Since I may have to work around several more trips during the growing season, I should just bite the bullet and do it.

BTW, I do have two baskets which already have some live plants in them — peas. One basket has four or five sprouts, the other only has one.

The 'Topsy Turvy' was not labelled, so there is the possibility that it is something else. But it fits the description perfectly, as far as I can tell.

Here are the items from the cancelled order and what I have done/plan to do now:

• Corpuscularia lehmannii 'Ice Plant,' not a priority.
• Crassula imperialis 'Giant Watch Chain,' not a priority
• Echeveria 'Atlantis,' reordered this, also ordered two of the similar Echeveria imbricata 'Blue Rose.'
• Echeveria runyonii 'Topsy Turvy' (2), got one big one at Nana's.
• Graptosedum 'Francesco Baldi,' still interested in this or something similar.
• Graptoveria 'Debbie,' reordered.
• Greenovia aurea variegata, my enthusiasm waned when I found out is is related to aeonium and is summer dormant.
• Sedeveria 'Silver Frost,' not a priority.
• Sedum SunSparkler 'Blue Pearl,' reordered.
• Sedum alboroseum 'Mediovariegatum' variegated, still interested if I need more sedum.
• Sedum takesimense 'Atlantis' variegated, still interested if I need more sedum.
• Sempervivum 'Hurricane,' reordered.
• In my Succulents Depot reorder, I also added a Mammillaria gracilis fragilis 'Thimble Cactus.' The Sempervivum survivor is ready to move out of the house, opening up a spot for another cactus on my office window sill.

The items that are not a priority were in the original order (frankly) to get free shipping. From Nana's, I didn't have to pay for shipping, just for gas to drive a total of 94 miles. And the great thing is, none of them were covered with dirt or looked like a grenade exploded next to them, at least not until I potted them up. In my Succulents Depot reorder, I didn't get enough for free shipping, but I decided I really wanted those 'Blue Rose' Echeverias and not everything else.

Ice

The designation "Ice Plant" seems meaningless. Once all of my outstanding orders arrive, I will have three unrelated succulents called "Ice Plant," and two of them are not cold hardy. (Update: the Succulents Depot order has been cancelled.

This one is the Oscularia deltoides 'Ice Plant.' I acquired it at the end of February and put it in the 10" Montage Bowl. It's definitely not shy and I should divide it and move half of it elsewhere. It is not cold hardy.

The ice plants I have on order are Corpuscularia lehmannii 'Ice Plant" (not hardy) in the shipment from Succulents Depot that has been in limbo since the middle of last week, and Delosperma 'Fire Spinner,' a true ice plant that is hardy to Zone 5, expected to arrive Friday from The Three Company Store via Amazon. The 'Fire Spinner' has fabulous flowers and is part of my plan to convert at least one greenhouse bed to cold-tolerant succulents (including sedums and sempervivums).

While I was out in the garage shooting the Montage Bowl, I also got images of Crassula perforata variegata 'String of Buttons' (variegated), and Senecio haworthii 'Cocoon Plant.' The latter takes up a lot of space in the bowl and also should be divided.

While I'm waiting for the two examples of Echeveria 'Topsy Turvy' from Succulents Depot, I have to be content with the somewhat similar Echeveria 'Cubic Frost.' I think it looked a bit rough when first planted a month ago. The color has mellowed since then.

Finally, while I was finishing up I noticed the Haworthia retusa f. geraldii 'Star Cactus' which was potted up a little more than a week ago. I pulled seven pieces off of it before planting the main part, and I could have pulled a lot more. It is apparent from both color and size which is the main plant and which are the pups. Previously, there wasn't such a color difference. The flower stalk leads out of frame, but there are some pale pink flowers on the end of it despite getting squished during shipping. This is a single frame, not focus stacked.

Historic

Every hum-drum event these days gets the "Historic!!!" designation. By flying around the Moon, Artemis 2 did something never done in history before, at least since Apollo 17 in 1972. The meetings between the US and Iran were historic...but produced nothing. "ChiliFest cleanup underway after historic cancellation," reads a headline on a Texas TV site. Apparently a chili event got rained out for the first time in more than 35 years (which means it has happened before). Here's an event that has never occurred before in history: There will be an Echeveria in my greenhouse tonight. I trust the heaters enough to let one of the Purpusorums do a sleepover. I purposely chose it because I have two of them and, tag, you're it. The other one is in a bowl with other plants, and this one is a loner without a family. In other words, expendable.

I'm going to transplant the Purpusorum into a Southwest-looking pot that I've had for a long time, the pot that the 'Velveteen Aromatic' ™ in the image currently is occupying. I'll probably cut the tall part off the 'Velveteen Aromatic' ™ and plant the bottom in the outside barrel or a window box to see what it can do in real sunshine. It looks a bit yellow and needs a hit of nitrogen. I rarely fertilize overwintering plants because I don't want them taking over the garage. But now may be the time.

Moving the Purpusorum will free up the 6" squat pot for something from the Succulents Depot order, if it ever arrives. (Still no shipping notification, and they ignored my email today.)

The 'Velveteen Aromatic' ™ in the next image is three times taller than the previous one and is the biggest one that made it through winter. It has been in the west-facing window in our bedroom. Even that prime location didn't give it enough light and it is a bit etoliated (stretched). My ideal 'Velveteen Aromatic' ™, which I have achieved once in more than 30 years, is a round, compact ball. That historic plant was in the ground on the south side of my house during the summer, and did not survive the first frost. The greenhouse should have enough light to accomplish that again, which would be historic. The second image is from less than six months ago, so it did grow over the winter. Up, not out.

I'm not sure what to do with this big thing. Whatever it is will involve pruning. I could try an overall 30-50% trim and see if it will bush out, but what I have done in the past is take cuttings and just start over. I already have six cuttings several months old and I really don't need more, but I feel like I should do something historic with that long, straight central stalk. One "problem" with 'Velveteen Aromatic' ™ is it is just too easy to propagate. Just take several cuttings, stick them in soil, and odds are most of them will develop roots and grow. And grow and grow.

I tried to take some historic images of a Supertunia today, specifically Vista Jazzberry. Even the best cameras have difficulty with flower colors sometimes. Backlighting didn't really work here, I'm sure I will try 1,000 more times this summer.

Post about nothing

It looks like the greenhouse is rounding into shape from this image. But nothing of significance is visible here. The strawberries have not been received and planted in the bed just below the camera. The flowers in the first bed to the left have not come up. Those are just mint pots sitting on the edge. The onions in the next bed have not come up. The vegetables in the far (west) bed have not come up (except maybe some radish sprouts today). None of the ten coir baskets have been planted with Supertunias or strawberries.

There is progress, for sure. Some of the seeds on the heat mat have started to make an appearance. That would include marigolds, alyssum, and tomatoes. As mentioned, radishes or something is coming up in the salad area aka west bed. I culled half of the mint and some other redundant plants. I planted the geranium and some of the petunia cuttings that made it through winter in one big pot. We will see how they get along. The new heater from Amazon is on a slow boat from China, so I bought one at the local Ace and set it up as the primary. It's on the ground, left of the blue Lowe's bucket. I'll probably retire the one I bought last year (bottom of the image) since it does not seem to be pumping out much heat.

Meanwhile, back at the garage, I took cuttings of the six Supertunias as insurance against disaster. I'm already wondering if the Jazzberry cutting is too small.

As I briefly alluded to a few days ago, it seems like I buy a bag of cactus and succulent planting mix every week at Ace Hardware. I just ordered 20 lbs. of pumice which I will use with my existing soil to make succulent mix. I don't know if it will be cheaper this way, but my medium-term goal is to convert the southwest (onion) bed to a hardy succulent bed, which would require replacing a large percentage of the soil with something like pumice. Longer term, perhaps convert the west bed also, leaving the southeast bed for conventional flowers and the east bed for strawberries. In the hardy succulent beds, I would plant sempervivums, sedums and delospermas. ...I talked myself into it, I just ordered a pair of delosperma 'Fire Spinner' ice plants from Amazon. As I said a few days ago, anyone can plant tomatoes and peppers.

Day at the Beach

I let the Supertunias out of their cage for about an hour this morning. It wasn't for hardening off since that will be 6-7 weeks from now, but I just wanted to get them outside. It was mostly sunny with a temperature of 69 and a light breeze. (Ignore the humidity reading on the thermometer; it is never accurate. It's 25% today.) From top left, Honey, Vista Jazzberry, Priscilla; front row, Latte, Vista Bubblegum, Royal Velvet. The size difference between the blooms on the Vistas and the original Supertunias is already apparent. Vista Jazzberry has much smaller blooms compared to the Latte.

I will have six baskets, three locations. If bloom size is a consideration, I would pair the Vista Jazzberry with the Vista Bubblegum, but they are similar colors. Maybe a contrast would be better. I just picked the ones I wanted and didn't give much thought to pairings. The difficult pairing may be Honey. But since they will each be in their own basket, it will be easy to swap them around. Matching would be a bigger deal if I was putting three different varieties in one basket.

Even though a couple of them need some recovery time after the trauma of shipping, you can already tell that these hopped-up mutants are ready to go. Royal Velvet may be the frontrunner for the first to burst out of its pot, followed by the Vistas.

The Coleus also made it outside, and into its permanent pot. After an hour of sun, it took its place in a west-facing window in our kitchen. On nice days, I can quickly pop it outside on our back patio. It will spend time at the greenhouse, and might even end up outside next to the greenhouse due to its fabulous attribute of being (slightly) toxic, so hopefully deer resistent. I'm also still trying to sprout Coleus from seed, so if that ever works I will have more than this one to attempt to overwinter as a true houseplant.

Since I've started taking care of more succulents, I've become much more aware of well-draining soil. Looking back, I can't believe I have been able to keep my aloes alive for so many years with the mud I planted them in. With the Coleus, I used regular potting soil augmented with about 1/3rd cactus soil. Unlike succulents, you don't want to let them go completely dry between waterings, according to Mr. Sheffield. I don't have conventional house plants, but I still watch the escapades of Mr. Sheffield (not his real name, it's where he lives in England) on YouTube's "Sheffield Made Plants" just for the entertainment value.

I moved Sempervivum 'Appletini' to the greenhouse, joining eight other Sempervivums already there. Here are images of two that I got a few days ago in Billings, a calcareum from Home Depot, and a Chick Charms 'Powdered Pastry' from Nana's Bloomers. That leaves five Sempervivums in the house, four Chick Charms and the little survivor.

Calcareum:

'Powdered Pastry':

On a concerning note, I don't believe the heater ran properly the last two nights. It got down to 34 and 37 the last two nights. The heater is supposed to kick in at 42. I tested it and I could feel warmth coming out, but not forcefully. If the new heater doesn't arrive by Wednesday, I have an old fire hazard space heater I might have to use.

Tunia ICU

After I got the Supertunia shipment yesterday, the plants went into the garage closet under the grow lights and got a drink. They look a little better today than they did right out of the box, and even have a few new flowers coming into bloom. They aren't quite ready for macro images; maybe in a couple days. There's still a lot of dirt on the plants, and it is just about impossible to brush it off the fuzzy leaves. I tried judicious use of the squirt bottle and that helped a little bit.

I'm trying to decide when to plant these in their baskets and hang them in the greenhouse. I returned the recent heater purchase to Amazon today, and I'm not going to put these in the greenhouse until I receive another heater. I have too many things going not to have a backup, and I'm not going to add the Tunias to that. The shipping status says "shipped" as of Thursday, arriving at a carrier facility at 4:07 am. It doesn't say in what country the carrier facility is located, but a little internet research indicates China. Amazon says it might be here Monday-Wednesday. Another consideration is the forecast says we will have some colder weather returning in a week with lows around 20 next Friday and Saturday. I might skip past that also. That pushes the planting out to Sunday, April 19. I think the grow lights are bright enough to carry the Tunias until then, so that is the plan. All they have to do until then is heal up and start growing.

The Coleus will get potted before then. I have a green ceramic pot that will work. I ejected a 'Velveteen Aromatic' ™ from it, but I forgot to bring potting soil home. Tomorrow.

No Regerts

I went to the local Ace Hardware today to buy my weekly bag of cactus and succulent soil, and checked out the plant section as I always do. They had a Gollum Jade that looked a lot better than the one I potted up a few days ago. Of course they did. It was $9, versus the $7.98 I paid for the Home Depot pot that contained the Gollum and three other succulents. The $9 would have been the better deal. Something similar happened in February. I bought a Jade at Walmart, and a few weeks later saw a bigger, nice one at Ace. I bought that one; I decided to pass on today's Gollum. No regerts, as they say.

I did take some images today of recent succulent acquisitions. These got the full focus-stacking treatment, starting with Sempervivum Chick Charms 'Cosmic Candy.' As I wrote a few days ago, I saw some nicer ones at Nana's Bloomers after I got this one, but this one isn't bad. It just doesn't have the masses of offsets yet that the others did.

Chick Charms Lotus Blossom:

Chick Charms Appletini:

Chick Charms Berry Blues:

Chick Charms Gold Nugget. Even though it isn't as hairy as the others, it still has dirt stuck in the leaves from the recent planting.

This is the Gainan's acquisition that I am claiming is Graptopetalum paraguayense 'Ghost.' It is not potted up yet because I'm planning on using it in a hanging pot with some sedum coming from Succulents Depot, IF they ever send me my order. According to their FAQ, it should have been sent two days ago, so I don't know what is going on.

Because I haven't potted it up, it is top heavy in its little container. After shooting its portrait in the kitchen, I set it on a shelf back in the garage and 20 minutes later happened to be looking in that direction as it keeled over and fell three feet to the concrete floor. Amazingly, there was no apparent damage. Tougher than a Pachyphytum, for sure.

I also want to take a look at some plants I've had for a while. Remember Graptoveria 'Lovely Rose'? It had a harrowing journey from Mountain Crest in February and lost a lot of leaves in transit. Two months later, it is looking like it is supposed to. I think it has doubled in size.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that both Echeveria Purpusorums were sending up flower stalks. But then they took divergent paths. Now, the one in its own pot has a short, stocky stalk (that might be drying up) and the other in the Bonsai Bowl has a long, thin stalk.

The Echeveria 'Blue Curls' is sort of a forgotten acquisition. It needed to recover from shipping, and after a month I'm still not sure what it is going to look like eventually. Obviously it does not have the regular structure of 'Neon Breakers.'

And finally, another update on my best result so far with leaf propagation. This little unknown is now 1/2 an inch across. The big leaf isn't shriveled but is floppy, so the day is approaching when the little one will be on its own.

We have Winners

The much-anticipated box from Proven Winners Direct arrived today containing six Supertunias and a Coleus. I've done enough plant unboxings recently that I wasn't too horrified by what I saw. It will take a while to get all of the loose stuff out of the leaves on a couple of the plants, and a few of the containers were cracked.

Worst off were the two on the left, Honey and Latte. Cleanest was Royal Velvet at lower right. The other three are Vista Bubblegum, Vista Jazzberry, and Priscilla. The Coleus ColorBlaze Wicked Witch is in good shape except for a spot of dried schmutz on one of the leaves. I'm going to keep an eye on local Supertunia availability and decide if it is worth the hassle of online ordering in future years. Points to consider:

1. If I buy a Supertunia at a local store, I can select one that is not covered with dirt and doesn't have a cracked container.
2. But none of the local stores have them in stock yet.

I placed them under the grow light in the garage closet, the warmest spot in the garage, and gave them a good dose of water. The next question is when to put the tunias in the baskets and hang them in the greenhouse. It will be at least a couple days. The Coleus will get potted up as soon as I evict a 'Velveteen Aromatic' ™ from a ceramic pot.

Also today, I potted up the presumed Crassula 'Gollum' from yesterday's Home Depot bowl purchase. Here it is on the left, with the presumed Crassula 'Ogre Ears' from a Home Depot bowl a couple weeks ago. Similar but different. (Also notice that 'Ogre Ears' is no longer a sickly yellow.)

After I potted the 'Gollum' and put the remainder of the Home Depot bowl in a larger bowl I recently purchased, I realized there wasn't much there. In the new bowl, there is a dark Echeveria (?) in the middle, three examples of what I'm guessing is a large sedum at the bottom, and two pieces of something with fat leaves at the top. In all, there were seven plants, four varieties. In the bowl I got a few weeks ago there were nine plants, six varieties. But I got the 'Gollum.' I'm not going to buy any more variety bowls this year unless 'Doris Taylor' (a fuzzy-leafed Echeveria) is staring up at me.

If the Succulents Depot shipment ever arrives (still no notification), I will put one of the two 'Topsy Turvy' in there, along with a cutting or two of sedum and any targets of opportunity. There's a couple of Haworthia cooperii pups that I haven't dislodged from their cup yet that can go into a variety bowl. None of the sprouts from the propagation trays are big enough to transplant yet. My first Jade cutting from more than two months ago seems well anchored in a 4" plastic pot, but hasn't gotten any taller.

I acquired two 9" flat bowls with saucers yesterday. Actually they are dinnerware originally from Target and not designed for plants. They were only $5.17 at Goodwill, after senior discount. They had plenty of coffee cups, but none of them spoke to me. I have to drill holes in the bowls to turn them into planters. The depth is not quite 1.75 inches, which is a bit shallow, but I'll try mounding the soil. If they don't work for larger plants I can use them to replace my plastic propagation trays.