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 no longer 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.

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 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.

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 I'm guessing 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 Cuban Oregano 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 Cuban Oregano 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.

Impatience

I have been incredibly impatient in my acquisition of the plants that will go into the greenhouse this season. I started ordering seeds and plants in December, and started some seeds not long afterward. I just didn't believe the local garden centers would have what I wanted to plant at the appropriate time of year, early April, in other words NOW.

Seed starting has been a lot of time and effort. Some things have worked, some have not. I have tried coleus and basil multiple times and got the seeds to sprout, but they never thrived. Now I'm trying to start seeds on a heat mat in the greenhouse, coleus and basil included. I'm hoping natural sunlight gets them past the sprout stage.

I have acquired a lot of succulents this winter, and I wonder three weeks into spring when some of them are going to start, you know, growing. The four Sempervivums that survived the February freeze are turning a little bit greener, but they haven't gotten any bigger. They are sitting in the greenhouse and I gave them a good watering recently, so they should be getting the full effect of longer days.

Not all of the garden centers in the Billings area are open yet, but I took a trip today anyway to find what I could find. I started at Gainan's just to see where they were on the Supertunia front. I wasn't going to buy any because I'm getting my Proven Winners Direct shipment tomorrow. (Yay!) The expense of plants at Gainan's is one reason I don't place confidence in the local retailers. I didn't see Supertunia individual pots or in baskets, but they did have baskets with calibrachoas which I believe were Proven Winners. There were two price points for the baskets, $90 and $140. They were the same size, so I guess the difference was the plant selection. When I saw those prices I became more secure in my plan to order Supertunias from Michigan and make my own baskets.

As I have said before, it drives me nuts that Gainan's and others have nice-looking succulents and don't bother to have ID tags on most of them. But I did spot a four-stemmed succulent in a 3" pot that I am fairly sure is a Graptopetalum paraguayense 'Ghost' or something closely related. My order from Succulents Depot includes several sedums that I want to put in hanging pots, and I think this long-stemmed, branching 'Ghost' (or whatever it is) will be a good addition to the pots. I thought it reasonably priced at $6 even if the ID was just a semi-educated guess. The cashier, apparently not believing that anyone could get out of Gainan's for only $6, tried to charge me $12. I convinced her of the error of her ways and got it for the correct price. It is shown in this snapshot with a small Home Depot variety bowl I acquired a few hours later.

The Home Depot bowl was back to its regular price of $8, versus the $6 for the one I got on sale a couple weeks ago. I picked this one mainly for the Crassula on the left in the image, which I believe is Gollum. There's also a dark Echeveria (probably) and several thick-leaved somethings, but the impulse purchase was based on the Gollum. It resembles the Crassula Ogre Ears I got in the previous Home Depot bowl, but there are enough differences that I'm confident in the ID. I'll pot up the Gollum and distribute the unknowns to different bowls.

Walmart and Lowe's also had some variety bowls, but Walmart's were rather sad-looking and Lowe's were $14. There was an interesting-looking dark sedum at Lowe's, but it had bits of white fuzz on it. I don't know if I have ever seen a mealybug, but maybe I did today at Lowe's. I have enough aphids; I don't need a new pest.

Also at Home Depot, I got this Sempervivum calcareum. It is a fairly standard burgundy-tipped species, but the reason I got it is there are seven offsets forming. From what I can tell, in the calcareum species there is this variety that doesn't have an additional name, and about a dozen named varieties. When I potted it up and put it on the shelf next to the winter survivors, that's when I really noticed that the others have not grown this spring.

My final garden center stop was Nana's Bloomers near Laurel, MT. We've been driving past it on our way to Billings for years and never went in. During my recent plant acquisition activities, it was closed for the season. It opened a few days ago, and my reaction to finally going inside was "Whoa!" One of the first things I saw was tables and tables of coleus. As I said, I've been having trouble starting them from seed. I included a $12 coleus in my Proven Winners Direct order just so I would have ONE as I'm trying to get more to grow. Nana's was selling them for $7. In a different building they had four-packs of smaller coleus. There weren't quite as many varieties and I'm not sure of the price.

In the same greenhouse as the bigger coleus, they had a very small table devoted to succulents. Alas, most of them were not tagged, but they had about six very nice plants that were easy to identify as Echeveria 'Topsy Turvy,' $7 for a 4-inch pot. 'Topsy Turvy' was the centerpiece of the the Succulents Depot order which will ship any day now (I hope). I ordered two for $4.15 each, but they are smaller than what I saw today. (One of Nana's pots had two medium-sized plants instead of one big one.) Maybe that is a wash. But then there were the succulents that did have ID tags, the Sempervivum Chick Charms, $7 each. I paid about $12 each for two individual pots at Mountain Crest. I saved a bit by getting the trio ('Cosmic Candy, Gold Nugget, Appletini) for $14, but Nana's had about eight 'Cosmic Candy' pots that were 10 times better than what I potted up this week after splitting up the trio. They had several 'Gold Nugget' pots that were a bit better than what I ended up with after the split. To add to my collection, I decided to get a 'Powdered Pastry' because I have grown partial to Semps that have webbing and/or lots of cilia. And, like the calcareum, it has a lot of offsets.

If I had known Nana had 'Topsy Turvy' and these Semps, if I had been more patient, my online ordering history would be different. From what I saw in the other buildings at Nana's, my seed starting history also would be different. I just planted seed-starter 6-cells with alyssum, coleus, marigold, marjoram, tomatoes, stevia, basil and broccoli. I could have gotten all of these already ready to plant (except maybe the stevia) today at Nana's. Their coleus look great; my previous attempts have topped out at a 1/4 inch. As a plant propagator, I'm having an existential crisis. We are barely into this season, and already I'm sure there will be a lot fewer seed starting attempts in the garage next winter and a lot more money spent at Nana's next April. I also learned yesterday when visiting Nana's that there is no need to travel the extra 18 miles to Gainan's.

Nana's had some Proven Winners varieties, but no Supertunias that I could find. They did have the competing Wave petunias. It's just trivia at this point pending receipt of my order tomorrow, but it would be nice to know for next year if they carry Supertunias. I'll visit at least once more in a few weeks even if I don't really need anything, and contrary to my usual demeanor I might even ask questions. I'm thinking my propagating next winter will include Supertunia cuttings, the usual Cuban Oregano, aloe, and rosemary, and not much else. I'll need the room for my exploding succulent collection, most of which will not overwinter in the greenhouse.

With my trip today, all I managed to do in the greenhouse was pot up the two Semps and water everything. Except the Semps. They weren't real dried out like some of the online orders I get, so I'll give them a few days.

More planting

Today at the greenhouse, I planted borage, nasturtiums and alyssum between the stakes I placed to mark the strawberry bed. I planted borage in three 5-gallon grow bags that will have strawberries, and planted dill in a 10-gallon grow bag. I potted up a donated tomato plant in a 6" plastic pot pending its final location either in the west bed or a bigger pot.

That's about it for inside direct seeding. If anything doesn't come up, there will be time to try again, or try something different. I realized today that I'm going to have to start watering every day. All of the beds and several of the grow bags are planted, the peas are in their baskets, the Supertunias arrive Thursday, and the strawberries arrive soon. With succulents this winter, I got used to not worrying about watering every day or every week. We have several trips planned in May and June, and I've got to get the irrigation set up.

I have flexible pipe for the hoops to use with the west bed row cover, and I almost got started on that today. But when I compared the 1/2" pipe to the 1/2" brackets, I realized that the pipe measurement is an inside diameter. I ordered 5/8" brackets, which will arrive Sunday. I did manage to relocate the inside trail camera to a permanent location today, and it is no longer in danger of getting smacked by a window. Thus ends the construction update.

I really need to use a better trail camera for the outside location. What I have there now is my cheapest and crappiest one. The only good thing about the Coleman camera is the mounting kit that came with it, which I used inside. On one hand, most of the shots are of the lodge guests running around and I don't need pictures of them. On the other hand, I'm hoping for moose and I should get something better there. And I always like to see a huge flock of turkeys pecking their way past.

When I got to the greenhouse today, there were three deer napping under the tree right next to it. Alarmed by my presence, they slowly got up and wandered one tree over to resume their relaxing. They aren't afraid of me. They are just waiting for me to plant something they can eat. There are four window boxes, two grow bags and a barrel outside, and supposedly they don't like marigolds, zinnias, nasturtiums, alyssum, cilantro, sage, mint, onion, thyme, rosemary and bergamot, which is what I am planning to plant. However, last year they registered their dislike for marigolds by yanking them out of the dirt and spitting them out. I got new, even more toxic marigolds this year and we'll see how they respond to them.

On the succulent front, I repotted the Sempervivum Chick Charms trio. They all got terra cotta pots, the Gold Nugget into a semi-fancy 6", the Cosmic Candy into a standard 6", and the Appletini into an 8". Succulents experts everywhere will chide me for using pots that are too large. Gold Nugget does look small in its pot, but should grow to 5 inches and produce offsets. The other two do not look small in their pots. This is just a quick snapshot, but Appletini in its 8" is sprawling now that it is free of the other two.

If the pot was smaller, those runners or offsets (I still don't know what to call them) would be hanging over the edge. Also, note the volunteer petunia photo bombing on the left. Just as in February, an offspring from last year's hybrids is producing a red flower instead of purple.

Succulents Depot still doesn't have a shipping date because they have to prepare the plants for boxing up as bare root. I've been sketching how to allocate pots, and a couple of Cuban Oregano might find themselves giving up their current accomodations. Rationalizing the entire CO/mint/aloe/rosemary/petunia/geranium situation needs to be done because it's a tangled mess right now. I kept this stuff alive in the garage all winter hoping SOME of it would make it through until spring, and way more than enough of it did. In particular, the CO and mint grow like weeds. Sad to say, we're talking compost bin.

Alert!

"Your Burpee Order is About to Ship!"

That was the title of an email I received today, and that would be the strawberries. They didn't give exact dates but I expect that means I will have to deal with the 25 bare roots and one plant in a week or so. I don't remember where I saw this, but one of the YouTubers I watch (maybe the GrowVeg guy) said to pot up the bare roots for a couple weeks before putting them in their final location. I have enough 6-inch plastic pots to do this. It is an extra step but it makes some sense to me. I'm going to do planter beds, grow pots and hanging baskets, and I might do it only for the baskets.

I'm in the middle of everything now. I finished moving almost all of the plants to the greenhouse that I wanted to move now. The garage closet is completely empty and the grow lights are turned off. Actually there are two plants in there, a zinnia with extreme bug damage, and last year's poinsettia. The former will be pitched, and the latter will be cut back and stuck somewhere until September or so. There's also a lot more room in front of the garage windows where most of the succulents are, under grow lights.

At the greenhouse, I planted the Epic 6-cells today, six each of Alyssum, Coleus and Marigold, and three each of Marjoram, Basil, two kinds of tomatoes, Stevia, and Broccoli. Those only fill up half of one tray on the heat mat, so I have a second heat mat I probably will not use.

If I am going to install a row cover over the vegetable (west) bed to keep the bugs off, I need to do it now. While I have the drill out, I will reposition the trail camera I use for surveillance. Then, at some point I am going to have to cull the peppermint, Cuban Oregano, petunias, geraniums, even the Aloe Vera. It's not that I have too much aloe, it's that some of it got ravaged by aphids a few months ago and doesn't look good. On Feb. 4, I made 4-inch pots of Cuban Oregano and aloe, six each, and I guesstimated that 100% of the CO and 50% of the aloe would prosper. Two months later, 100% of the CO and 50% of the aloe have made it this far.

After analyzing the first two nights of temperature data from the Elitech devices, it is apparent the new heater either is not kicking in at 48 degrees or is not keeping up. Both nights, the charts indicate the backup heater started at 40 degrees and shut off at 45 as it was supposed to in case of failure by the primary heater, and cycled through this several times. When I fiddle with the new heater, it works. The problem, I think, is the new heater is not designed for a greenhouse and does not have a separate temperature probe located a distance away. It will not work with an external controller so I am returning it and will get one that does.

After greenhouse chores I went to the Post Office to pick up The Next Gardener's replacement for 'Apricot Beauty.' Unlike the previous one, this one doesn't look like it got hit with a grenade. I know I'm not supposed to water anything for few days after unboxing and potting, but this one was so dry and so wobbly in the pot that I watered it just to anchor it. Here it is alongside most of the shattered remains of the previous order. There is another one-inch rosette that I chopped off and previously posted, and it seems to be doing fine.

Now I'm building up the courage to repot the Sempervivum trio. I repotted 'Berry Blues' twice in two days (grower pot to 6" to 8"), and I think it suffered a bit. In a day or two I will do it because 'Gold Nugget' needs its own pot.

April 8: Apparently Burpee believes in giving plenty of warning. Regarding the strawberry plants, the status on the order page still says, "Ships between: Apr 13 - Apr 27," which is what it has always said. I saw some healthy strawberry plants at Home Depot today and I'm ready to get going on this.

Day 2

In the greenhouse today, I planted seeds for all the cool-season vegetables in the west planter bed, including golden beets, carrots, various radishes, various lettuce, basil, broccoli and peas. The plan is to have all these except the basil finish producing by June and turn the bed over to tomatoes and peppers. The basil is all in one spot but will be moved around the bed if it is prospering by June.

In the southeast planter bed where I put the Teddy Bear sunflower seeds yesterday, I direct seeded zinnia, marigolds, nasturtium and alyssum. The potato grow bag got a scattering of cilantro seeds, and the sunflower pot got some bunching onions.

The southwest bed got all of the onion sets yesterday, so the only bed I haven't touched is the east one where the strawberries will go. Burpee will deliver the 25 bare roots (Albion) and one plant (Montana) in a few weeks. I will direct seed some borage, nasturtiums and alyssum in there in support of the strawberries. Direct seeding all of these is much easier than seed starting, and if they don't grow then I'll figure something else out. Anyway, varieties like sunflowers and nasturtiums don't always do well as transplants and are often better off being seeded directly. I still have plenty of seeds to start, it just won't include these.

Two of the three borrowed geranium pots from last year have returned. I don't have room for the third one if it is found. I whacked the foliage way back before dropping them off last November, and now they look as lush as ever. I took one cutting each from them and from my own pot back then, and to my dismay all four survived (after one restart) and now I have to figure out what to do with THEM. I have enough geraniums. I also moved the two biggest pots of holdover petunias to the greenhouse, giving the big one a haircut and a shot of fertilizer.

In addition to 14-inch and 16-inch coir baskets, I also have a couple of 10-inch hanging plastic pots. Nice green ones, not generic. I was going to put strawberries in them, but that idea originated before I had all these succulents. Now I think I will plant them with hardy succulents, and with that in mind my newest online order includes three sedums that are hardy and may look good in a hanging basket. I have to figure out what would go with these spillers. Maybe Graptosedum 'Francesco Baldi,' listed below. Here is the complete order from Succulents Depot. I am ordering from them for the first time because Mountain Crest only had Echeveria 'Topsy Turvy' in stock for a few days. Just to make sure (and to get free shipping), I ordered two of them.

• Corpuscularia lehmannii 'Ice Plant' (the "other" Ice Plant)
• Crassula imperialis 'Giant Watch Chain'
• Echeveria 'Atlantis' (green, pink edges)
• Echeveria runyonii 'Topsy Turvy' (2)
• Graptosedum 'Francesco Baldi' (colorful, can grow tall)
• Graptoveria 'Debbie' (neat rosette in shades of dusty pink)
• Greenovia aurea variegata (yellow-green, creamy, or sometimes pinkish-streaked variegation)
• Sedeveria 'Silver Frost' (pink-tipped pale green leaves)
• Sedum SunSparkler 'Blue Pearl' (smoky blue foliage on wine-red stems)
• Sedum alboroseum 'Mediovariegatum' variegated (Green and yellow, more upright than other sedums)
• Sedum takesimense 'Atlantis' variegated (small, serrated leaves are dark green with creamy yellow margins.)
• Sempervivum 'Hurricane' (webbed)

I've had my eye on the Greenovia at Succulents Depot for quite a while. No one else seems to have it. It is sort of like an Aeonium. The others in the order admittedly are not "must haves" but they were the most interesting ones I could find in stock. Succulents Depot makes a point of shipping many of their plants bare root rather than with soil in pots. Considering that a lot of the soil in these shipments ends up scattered around the box anyway, it makes some sense. We'll see how it works in practice.

I had this wild thought yesterday about the future of the greenhouse. If we want to travel during the summer but still raise fruits, vegetables and flowers, I need to make sure the irrigation system is working and also have someone check on it every day to make sure it is working. What if the greenhouse was stocked only with plants that only needed watering every week or two during the summer? What if my planter beds were filled with sempervivums and sedums that lived there year-round, and my bench and open area had summer residents such as echeverias and other tenders? (In the winter they would retire to our garage or windows.) Everyone raises tomatoes. Why do what everyone else does?

It's not going to happen this year. The soil needs to be amended with stuff like pumice and small gravel to a depth of at least six inches to provide proper drainage. And I do want to keep growing some thirsty things like Supertunias and strawberries. We'll see where this idea leads, but I would not be surprised to see a Sempervivum stuck in one of beds at some point.

By my count, I have eight tiny plants that have come into being through leaf propagation. I noticed this one today. It is the first one that shows the original leaf shriveling to this extent, so it is close to being required to survive on its own. I gave it its own little pot and will try to remember to mist it frequently. All these new little plants will need somewhere to grow, and I have a greenhouse...albeit it not a four-season greenhouse.

Today

I turned the heat on in the greenhouse today. I planted onions (red, yellow, white and bunching), Teddy Bear Sunflowers, peas, potatoes, and cilantro. I decided the big grow bag that got the potatoes will be the one that remains inside. It would be too heavy to move after getting water, so I'll transport an unwatered big bag to our house and eventually put flowers in it. I may plant some flowers or cilantro in the potato bag. Supposedly they don't compete for nutrients since their root systems are at different depths.

I transported all of the mint, rosemary and geraniums from the garage to the greenhouse. The geraniums will have the chance to spread out for the first time since November. When I move the petunias, Cuban Oregano and aloe over there, I can shut down the closet in the garage that has been active since November. That would leave the succulents almost by themselves in the two garage windows. They aren't going to the greenhouse soon, except maybe the Sempervivums.

The compost I put on top of the soil in the planting beds is completely dry and hydrophobic, so I spent some time today trying to get the beds to accept water. In the next week I will install a grow tunnel over the west planting bed and try to sprout some cool-season vegetables (carrots, lettuce, broccoli, beets) before flipping that over to tomatoes and peppers in June. The tunnel is to keep the bugs off, not for heat retention. I don't understand how I can spray a plant from top to bottom with soap in the morning, and it is infested with aphids again in the afternoon. That happened today with the Bergamot. I still have two good Bergamot so hopefully they survive long enough to get planted in the barrel outside the greenhouse.

I tested the two heaters together yesterday, and no circuit breakers were harmed during the testing. I set the new one for 50 and the old one for 40. The old one only kicks in if the new one can't keep up, or it fails. Based on last autumn's temperature records, I believe it is possible to maintain the nighttime temperature at least 20 degrees above the outside. (With no heat there is usually a 5-6 degree difference.) With forecast lows no worse than the mid-20s in the next few weeks, that keeps the inside at 45, which should be good enough to keep everything alive if not thriving. With the sun shining, it easily gets to 80 inside during the day even if it is only 40 outside. I finally got some data from the new thermometer, and the coldest it has been the past nine days has been 18 outside and 24 inside. That's consistent with what I observed before the AC Infinity went on the fritz. Supposedly it got to 109 degrees inside on Saturday, but the probe was sitting on a shelf in the sun. It's now in a more appropriate location, hanging on the back wall. Even though I can't communicate with the AC Infinity controller through the app any more, it still turns the fan on at 75 degrees, and the automatic vents still do their thing. Because the fan still works, I haven't tried to troubleshoot very extensively.

Pictures of a newly-planted onion bed aren't that compelling since, you know, the onions are buried, so I picked something else for Picture of the Day. It's a plant that enjoys the heat, the Mammillaria 'Elegans' Cactus. Unlike the Powder Puff which has been flowering for the past couple weeks, the 'Elegans' doesn't do anything but sit there and look pretty. It had some little purple spots months ago that I thought meant it would flower soon. It still has little purple spots, and no flowers. But it's a nice round cactus.

Actually I do have a couple images from the greenhouse today, but they aren't related to planting activities. First is the allium bud that my phone camera choked on the other day. It is still the only one of the five plants that has a bud.

The second image is the Sempervivums currently occupying the greenhouse. I won't move the five new ones for a few weeks, but I did move the Chick Charms 'Strawberry Kiwi' that I got about a month ago. It is second from the right in the image. The four old-timers have a story to tell the newcomer of the Semperpocalypse of Feb. 19 when six of their companions froze to death. Semps are supposed to be hardy, but the six who didn't make it probably weren't dry enough to endure the cold snap. Since figuring that out, I've been afraid to water the survivors. There's a big color difference between the four that have been in the cold for two months and the one that just came from a relatively-warm garage. Now that the heat in the greenhouse is back on, I will water them and hopefully they figure out soon that it is spring and they will start growing.

OK, I do have a photo of the boring onion bed. There actually are a few things above ground. At left are two rough-looking garlic that are the only ones that have made it this far. In front of them are bunching onion seedlings that I started a few weeks ago, and I scattered more seeds to the right of them. Toward the back are the five alliums that were planted last fall and started coming up in early February. Sitting on the corner is a big chive pot (one of two) that came out of dormancy more than a month ago. The onion sets obviously were stuck into that area in the middle.

Intro pictures

I snapped intro pictures of the Mountain Crest order today. I also did three from The Next Gardener order that I hadn't done because I wanted to give the plants some time to recover from the trauma. I'm starting with the Haworthia retusa f. geraldii 'Star Cactus' [large], which is not a cactus. I pulled seven pieces off of it before I planted the main part. The long stem got a bit squished in transit and most of it is not visible here, but it may still put out some flowers. The image of the main portion is followed by two of the other plantings in 3D printed pots, and other pieces ended up in various bowls.

My favorite image of the day, the very fuzzy Echiveria pulvinata 'Frosty.'

Next is the Echeveria 'Black Knight.'

Three of the Chick Charms Sempervivums came in one container and for now I kept them together in a tall pot. I will split them up into their own 6-inchers in the next few days. First is 'Cosmic Candy,' then 'Appletini,' then the (relatively) small but showy 'Gold Nugget.'

Another Sempervivum Chick Charms, 'Berry Blues.' I potted it in a 6-inch, then a day later put it in an 8-inch to free up pots for the trio. This thing is already the biggest succulent I have and will continue to grow.

The fifth Sempervivum Chick Charms in this shipment is 'Lotus Blossom.' Like 'Berry Blues' and 'Appletini,' it already has offsets or runners or whatever you want to call them. As with many of these that have cilia on the leaves, it caught a lot of dirt during the shipment and it's hard to remove with a brush.

And now we come to the less joyous part of our review, the order from The Next Gardener. The first one is the Echeveria 'Rainbow,' the variegated version of 'Perle von Nurnberg.' You can see the potential here, but in my opinion this plant was damaged when it was sent and they should not have accepted a premium price for it.

Next up is Echeveria 'Linda Jean.' Meh. It should grow out of its leaf damage eventually.

Finally we have a tiny rosette from the Pachyphytum 'Apricot Beauty,' the real disaster of this shipment. The main stem lost most of its leaves in transit and eventually died. I chopped off this little piece off of a dying stem in an attempt to salvage something. They solicited a review from me for this plant, and when I rightfully gave them one star, they offered to send a replacement. It should arrive in the next day or two. (They didn't offer a replacement when I gave Rainbow three stars.) This cutting actually looks pretty good, but I paid for a plant, not a 1-inch cutting.

In fairness to The Next Gardener, the two 'Echeveria Purpusorums' they sent me are downright spectacular and already are two of my favorites. But besides the Crassula cv. 'Buddha's Temple' which is OK despite not having much of a root system to anchor it, the other three plants in the order ranged from significantly damaged to dead.