Somewhat hardy

I last checked in on the greenhouse last Wednesday before going on a trip. I thought maybe the plants would benefit from an absence of my helicoptering for a few days. All looked well in the garage this morning, but in the greenhouse it was a different story. The three Sempervivums that are relatively new and were in 4-inch pots are frost damaged. Of note is that the older plants in 4-inch pots that have had longer to acclimate to the greehouse are OK, as are the two planted in 6-inch pots.

All of these Sempervivums are supposed to be cold hardy to -20 or worse. The coldest it was in the greenhouse during my absence was +6 last Wednesday night and +10 the following night. But I do realize there is a difference between a plant that is rooted in the ground that has had a full growing season to get established, and one that until recently was in a climate-controlled California greenhouse and is now potted in a small pot and sitting on a bench in an unheated greenhouse in Montana. The three are now stashed in the relatively-warm garage and I hope they revive from the roots in a few months. If they don't come back, lesson learned.

In more positive news, already there are a few sprouts from the pepper seeds I put in a starter on a heat mat last Wednesday, and some thyme even has come up in that short time. I will have lots of mint and rosemary plants from which to choose come planting time. The basil has been less vigorous, but I have a couple of seedlings I should move to 4-inch pots. I should sprout some more, along with coleus (only one vigorous seedling so far).

I received six new 6-inch terra cotta pots that are half the height of regular pots. Interweb sources say that many types of succulents prosper in shallower pots, with exceptions like aloe. I repotted Perle von Nurnberg in a squat pot, and put the new unknown Echeveria from Trader Joe's in the freed-up 4-inch green pot. I drilled a hole in the 2.5-inch terra cotta that formerly held that Echeveria and inserted a cutting of some unknown succulent I got from my nephew. Here are those three in order of height. The saucer for the squat pot is barely big enough to hold it, which I knew from the Amazon reviews. With succulents, I'm usually going to be taking the pot out of the saucer when watering so the excess can drain away easily, so I figure it will be OK. My recent watering session with the new Jade plant was an adventure and required draining for several hours before it was safe to put back in the saucer.

The new Echeveria has not been watered. Perle was watered last Wednesday. The unnamed cutting had several days to dry before I stuck it in dry soil today. None of them will get watered for a week. The sprouting pot, which I mist every few days, now has about 20 items in it and no sign any of them are doing anything. I'm coming around to the succulent way of doing things, i.e. letting thing completely dry out, and then letting them dry out a few more days, then drowning them.

The deer at the greenhouse can't wait until I put some things in the window boxes that they can eat. Just three more months. I hope they like marigolds and mint.

On the road

We don't have a Trader Joe's within 500 miles so we usually find one when we are in a larger city to pick up snack nuts and cheese. They also sell plants. I would have bought the $15 planter which is overstuffed with a variety of succulents, but it would have been challenging to transport it on the plane. I settled for this little Echeveria for less than $4. The 2.5-inch terra cotta pot is just for show; it didn't come with a hole (Update: There is one now). It is rooted in a plastic pot that fits inside the terra cotta.

No indication of variety but it has red tips and looks sort of like the Elfstone. But it has bigger leaves and probably will be a bigger plant.

Perle and Red

I happened to be in Home Depot today so picked up the Echeveria Perle von Nurnberg I thought I bought four days ago. Here are the imposter Red Sky and Perle side by side. Perle is by far the largest succulent I have planted in a four-inch pot, but I didn't have any six-inchers today and I didn't want to go up to eight.

Echeveria Red Sky and Echeveria Perle von Nurnberg

These two are closely related and do (or did) look almost alike. Red Sky seems to be a lighter, more reddish color, but that may have developed in just the past few days from getting a lot more light (grow lights and sun) than on a shelf at Home Depot. I think the plant on the right is the same one I had in my hand four days ago, and I recall the color of the two plants being exactly the same then. It will be interesting to see what the two look like next week after Perle catches some rays. Anyway, Perle can be crossed off my bucket list.

R U Ded?

When I was unpacking the Sempervivum order January 29, a loose little ball rolled out. With the webbed fluff on the leaves, apparently it came out of the Arachnoideum (#1) pot. It looked dead, but after my recent reading on succulents I knew not to assume that. When in doubt, stick it in some soil and see what happens.

The first three images I took of it were out of focus, which made me a bit peeved. I said to myself, "Self, you have the most powerful mirrorless camera in the world, a matched 100mm macro lens, Photoshop full edition AND a sturdy tripod." So I looked up how to do "focus bracketing" and blended 20 images (f/5.6, 0.8 second, 100 ISO) of this thing just to make sure I had it in focus. It is. These are two versions of the same blended image with different cropping. I still don't know whether it is alive, but I'm giving it every opportunity.

Twenty images is enough to get this little ball in focus, but the depth of field is still rather narrow. The camera will take up to 999 images. That would take a LONG time to stack in Photoshop.

It is not always necessary to use the in-camera focus bracketing, or to take dozens of images. Photoshop will take two or five (or 999) images and attempt to align and stack them. I took two images of this Sempervivum (#2) yesterday. As it turned out, one had the central rosette in focus and the other had the left and right offsets in focus. It wasn't intentional, but Photoshop allowed me to salvage the situation. The framing of the two images was not identical, but Photoshop took care of that by aligning them. If you look closely, there is still an out-of-focus zone between the front and the middle. Maybe three images would have been ideal, but given just two images it is better than either of the originals. There are other apps besides Photoshop that process focus bracketing and might be faster, but for me Photoshop is more than powerful enough.

The Next Day: I shot my newest cactus Mammillaria rhodantha aka Rainbow Pincushion using two different focus bracketing settings. The first one was 10 images with two steps in between (yesterday's was 20 images one step apart). The second was eight images with three steps in between. I think the second shoot had slightly more depth (8x3=24 is greater than 10x2=20), and a few more of the back spines were in focus. The danger is if there are too many steps between the exposures, there will be little bands that are out of focus. That isn't a problem here, and more experimentation could reveal when it would become a problem. But not today. I used backlighting from a window on this to emphasize the spines. To get all the spines in focus, I might have to go 12x3 or 8x4, something like that. This is the second image (8x3):

If you look closely, this cactus has fluff around the base of the spines, and I have seen some photos where the fluff is much thicker. It also has a long blooming season starting in the spring. I'm looking forward to getting perfectly in-focus images of fluff and flowers.

Allium

Last September, I found five bargain allium bulbs at Walmart and stuck them into one of the greenhouse beds. According to the information I can find, they should sprout sometime in the spring. Mid-February is still winter in Zone 5a, but it has been in the 50's outside most days, and it gets above 80 degrees in the greenhouse if the sun is shining. Four of the five allium started poking their heads above the surface a few days ago, and today they look like they are serious...but there is no sign of the fifth one. Either it knows it is still winter, or it rotted in the ground. (Feb. 24: The fifth allium is up.)

Allium is in the onion family, as are chives. One of the chive pots also has decided it is spring, and I decided it may as well get some sun.

I trimmed back the two sage plants and am hoping for a revival in the spring. If they revive, I will dig them up and put them elsewhere because they are right in the middle of my planned tomato/pepper bed. The three garlic are growing, the two buried mums seem to be OK under the straw, and there is still no word from the onion seeds.

Regarding my recent succulent obsession, I took portraits of all the Sempervivums in the greenhouse today. Again. Rather than fill up blog posts with these images, I'm creating static pages for each variety. Unless and until I lose ambition, the goal is to have static pages for ALL of my plants, with pictures and care guides. The link for the menu page "Plant Photos and Complete List" is located near the top of the right-hand menu. The first page completed is for Budai Mountains, which is pretty much my favorite Sempervivum now with the little offsets/buds that fall off, roll away and establish new plants. Here's a sample image.

Oops

I wasn't real pleased with the last online succulents order. I don't even blame Mountain Crest Gardens. It's just a reality that there is going to be some carnage when you have the USPS treating the package like a basketball. Although I still have some doubts about the Graptoveria Lovely Rose, I think all 12 of the plants will live and eventually thrive. However, there are enough stores in the Billings area for me to find most of the plants I want, and I can pick them up and look at them before I buy. If soil gets spilled out of the pot in transit back to my house, that's on me, not USPS.

I got some cabin fever today so headed north with a list in my head. At the top was Perle von Nurnberg, which may be the most popular Echeveria due to its "pearlescent pink and purple tones" as Mountain Crest says. I also wanted to get a Haworthia and a cactus. My first stop was the Laurel Walmart and I found nothing except a very dry example of an Echeveria Neon Breaker, which has frilled, colorful leaves. Interesting, but I decided to pass. Before heading to the Billings Walmart to see if they had a better selection, first I stopped at Home Depot. That's where I found Perle von Nurnberg, not just a 2-incher but a big 3.5-incher. I was getting ready to put it in the cart, but I saw another plant that I thought looked slightly better. I took that one instead, and also bought a new 6-inch pot for it. Imagine my surprise when I got home and the tag said "Echeveria Red Sky." It's a big, nice-looking plant but I don't get to cross Perle off my list yet. Or do I? Interweb sources indicate Red Sky is a variation or is at least closely related to Perle. They did look extremely similar to each other in the store.

Mountain Crest gushes, "Echeveria 'Red Sky' is a dazzling succulent hybrid admired for its velvety, rose-toned leaves that glow with soft pink to coral hues under sunlight. Its broad, slightly cupped foliage forms a graceful, symmetrical rosette that resembles a blooming flower, with each leaf blushing deeper along the edges in full sun or cooler temperatures." OK, maybe I accidentally hit the jackpot. After potting, Red Sky went into the garage window and is parked next to Lola. They enjoy grow lights and a south-facing window. With plenty of light, Lola's color has shifted from mostly green to pastel in just a few weeks, and hopefully the same will happen with Red Sky.

I had four other acquisitions today, and all went into my warm office. The Haworthias at Home Depot looked good. I mean, really good, so I got two. The first is Hawortha attentuata Concolor, and the next is Haworthia limifolia Fairy Washboard. I decided to pot them in the coffee cups I drilled. They aren't supposed to get big, but may produce offsets that will fill the 3-inch cups.

Home Depot also had a good selection of cacti, and I chose Mammillaria rhodantha aka Rainbow Pincushion. It adds some color to my cactus collection, which now numbers three, all Mammillaria genus.

And finally, an impulse purchase, Crassula rupestris, String of Buttons. It can provide company to my Jade plants (Crassula ovata). This time I promise to follow instructions and not water most of the plants I bought until next week, but this one seemed like it needed a drink. So I doused it and, I swear, it already has perked up from when this picture was taken just a few minutes ago.

My office window sill is now officially full and I don't contemplate adding to it. There are three Crassula, three Haworthia, three Mammillaria cacti, a Thankgiving cactus, and one lone little Sempervivum that might be dead. Maybe it is just playing possum to stay in the warm office and avoid getting put in the cold greenhouse.

For the garage, I still have the following on my list: Echeveria Perle von Nurnberg, a variation of Perle called Rainbow (variegated stripes of vibrant pink, blue, and yellow, currently out of stock at Mountain Crest), Echeveria Chroma (very colorful), Echeveria purpusorum Dionysos (red/orange/purple), and maybe something weird like Lapidaria margaretae Karoo Rose (blocky looking, pastel colors, blends in with the quartz in its native Namibia).

I am not searching for more Sempervivums to join the 10 at the greenhouse because I already have five Chick Charms® Sempervivums on order from Garden Crossings as part of my spring petunia order: Appletini, Berry Blues, Cosmic Candy, Gold Crown, and the very popular Gold Nugget. The documentation isn't real clear about the rosette size except Gold Nugget (5 inches), but some of them might be huge. In any case, they all should produce a lot of offsets and can fill up a big pot. They don't arrive until mid-May so I have time to figure out what pots to use. Or what raised bed.

I have plenty of room for the various succulents I have acquired, but I'm wondering what happens if I have any success propagating them. They might take over the greenhouse this summer instead of what I have planned. Who needs tomatoes anyway? And come cold weather, only the Sempervivums can stay in the unheated greenhouse. The rest somehow have to fit into the garage and the house, or I may have to start an aggressive gifting campaign. Now is the time to call dibs on a Red Sky offset.

Semps

Today I took the four new Sempervivums to the greenhouse. Officially they are now "outside" plants and will never spend much time inside the house or even the garage ever again. Here in Zone 5a we should be prepared for -20, and Sempervivums are supposed to be hardy to that. But since I took the first batch of six over there at the end of January, the lowest temperature outside was 17 degrees two nights ago. Inside the greenhouse, it was four degrees warmer at 21, so they have not been challenged. It's not going to get much colder anytime soon, according to the forecast. The daytime temperature has averaged 51 outside and 80 inside the past two weeks. I think that is too warm for various plants which might be trying to hibernate, so I lowered the threshhold to turn on the exhaust fan from 75 to 72.

The four new ones have white tags because I actually know what types they are. The original six are still a mystery, except for the one in the large pot at upper left which is some type of Arachnoideum with the webbing on the leaves. Maybe when they develop some summertime color I will attempt to identify them. The other thing to notice here is I put gravel in the original small pots. I don't know whether it is useful, but it probably looks a tiny bit better. I use the soil screener to get small hunks of gravel, and am doing the same with small round stones at the house. I probably should use even smaller gravel/rocks, but what I've been using is already paid for. There still is a large pile of gravel from last summer at Spruce Lodge, and our house is surrounded by a few tons of small stones.

Anyway, here's to life in the unheated greenhouse. Besides the Sempervivums, there also are the two mum pots buried in the beds, allium bulbs which think it is spring and are poking through the surface (4 of 5 so far), three live garlic, two chive pots (one of which is starting to grow), and two sage which may not be completely dead. I put five green onion pots into the soil Jan. 21 but haven't seen any shoots yet. In a pot in the semi-warm closet at home, I have one onion that has made an appearance. I probably put 8-10 seeds in each of the pots, so that's a little disappointing so far.

I don't think the Semps are going to grow a lot until it warms up for real, but I think all of the older ones are looking good and the newer ones should recover from transit shock in the next few weeks.

Actually there is one Semp that got left behind, the little dried-up Arachnoideum ball that was loose in the first shipment box. I thought it might benefit from the warmer environment of my office as it was trying to root...if it is still alive. As I've said a few hundred times since getting the greenhouse, we will see.

Purpose

What is more enjoyable, the process or the results? I was pondering that today as I was looking at the jade on the right at Ace Hardware.

On the left is the jade I rescued from Walmart 3+ weeks ago for $3.97. I've been nuturing it, chopping off one of the stems that became rotted, and looking forward to the day when it had noticeably grown and was obviously prospering under my care. The one on the right is what I hope the little one will look like in 1-2 years. But I could just buy the one on the right for $8.99 and be that much further ahead. So I did.

I also can't help but notice that the bigger plant is a brighter green than the little one. I haven't used any fertilizer, and won't until spring. Despite being a dingy little runt, the little one still has a home in my office window with Big Brother looming right behind.

The answer to the question above is "both." If the process was most important, I would raise everything from seed, which with some plants (including succulents) would take years. Jade does produce seeds, but does anyone even sell them? If the result was all that mattered, I would buy cut flowers at a flower shop. Or, since I'm cheap, at Costco.

The bigger pot has at least six stems, compared to the smaller one which has two. If I get more courageous, probably not before next summer, I will try to divide the big pot into separate plants. If that fails horribly, I still have the little one.

Watering Time

Many succulent internet sources, including Mountain Crest Gardens where I got my latest batch, say not to water right away. Wait a week or so until they can heal up from the stress of transit and repotting. But two days after receiving my shipment I just had to water them, not to give them a drink but to water them into the soil. The growing medium they used was very fine coco coir, almost like dust, and the little plants were just swimming around in it. Yesterday I drowned them in an attempt to anchor them better, and today I took their portraits. Some of them had a very rough time in transit but I think they will recover over the next few months to match the descriptions on the web site.

I got 12 plants, and four of them were Sempervivums. After yesterday's dunking, I'll let them dry out for a few days in the 50-degree garage before introducing them to their six friends in the unheated greenhouse. I'll start with this Sempervivum globiferum Budai Mountains, and let Mountain Crest explain why it is unique: "As with other members of this species, the offsets are small and spherical. They easily fall off the mother rosette and roll away to root. In only a few seasons, a single plant can spread into an immense colony."

There are five offsets growing, and I found two more loose in the box. I put the two rollers in the pot, and one is visible at about 4 o'clock in the image. Most of this delivery got potted into 4-inch pots, but because of the capability of this one becoming an "immense colony," I put it in a 6-inch pot.

Next is Sempervivum heuffelii Orion. The edges have silvery cilia that (eventually) will give it a frosted appearance.

Sempervivum heuffelii Coral Reef will have colors that change with the seasons, from "a vibrant cerise to a dreamy blue-green."

The fourth and final Sempervivum, Sempervivum heuffelii Cherry Glow, didn't fare too well in transit. Some of the leaves were damaged, and a couple of those that fell off were not salvageable. When healthy, it will have a red rosette with a green heart, deepening to purple in winter.

Most of the new plants will live in the 50-degree garage or the unheated greenhouse until April, but the next two will be houseplants in my warm office. They will some eastern morning light and plenty of heat. First is the Mammillaria bocasana Powder Puff Cactus.

Next is the Haworthia fasciata Zebra Plant, which can thrive in relatively-low light. I passed on buying one of these in Billings last week because the tips were a bit dried out. But this one has the same problem. We'll see what happens with it in my office window.

The next six are destined for the garage in a south-facing window with grow lights on for 14 hours a day. I finally received my latest Amazon pot order today, so the last one that got potted up and watered was this Sedeveria Blue Burrito. A few leaves fell off and are now in the sprouting bowl.

This Pachyphytum compactum Little Jewel also lost leaves in transit, and those also went into the sprouting bowl. When this plant develops, the leaves should have noticeable angular facets. You can see a few lines on the leaves here and those should become more pronounced.

This Pachyphytum oviferum Pink Moonstone is related to the Little Jewel but looks completely different with its round, fat leaves.

The Graptopetalum paraguayense Ghost Plant will show a wide range of pastel tones as it matures.

The Graptoveria Lovely Rose had a rough trip. It lost a number of leaves, and most of them were too damaged to try to propagate. I think it needs some neglect (aka less excitement) for it to recover.

Finally is the only Echeveria in the shipment, Raindrops. It is a colorful variety that develops bumps on the leaves that look like...raindrops. A couple of bumps are visible, but this is another plant that had a tough transit and needs some time to recover.

Mountain Crest Gardens supposedly is one of the best (if not THE best) place to order succulents, so I was a bit disappointed that more than a couple of plants were in rough shape with damaged and lost leaves. Part of it is they are at the mercy of the US Postal Service, which doesn't really care if the box is marked "Fragile." Frankly, the Plants for Pets order of six Sempervivums arrived in better condition. The plants were very dry, but they were rooted, and very few leaves fell off. And the box was delivered by UPS, not USPS. I'm going to resist placing orders with anyone for a while and see if I can find a few selections in quaint local shops such as Walmart.

My "must-have" right now is Echeveria Perle von Nurnberg, which may be the most popular echeveria. As Mountain Crest says, "An old, classic hybrid that is well-loved for its pearlescent pink and purple tones that can shade to blue-green. Its leaves have an elegant curve to them and a coating of farina gives them a soft sheen." But they didn't have them in stock when I placed my order! The Billings Walmart had a couple in stock about 10 days ago, but I passed on them because of slightly-rugged condition. In retrospect, based on some of the plants I got in this order, passing on those was a mistake. (Feb. 17 update: No regerts. I found a bigger, nicer one at Home Depot.)

I also want to get another indoor plant, maybe another cactus. I've been thinking about alternatives to buying dozens of 4-inch pots on Amazon, and one solution it to drill holes in coffee cups, which are typically 3 to 3.5 inches across. But Amazon isn't totally out of the loop because that's where I got the diamond-tipped drill bits. I drilled holes in three cups and a larger pot today and was happy with how they turned out. The plant shown is a Cuban Oregano in a two-inch pot and will not go into this cup. The new cactus (or something) is destined for this one. I don't drink coffee, but I accumulated cups like this in the course of my career.

Next up is delivery of an 8-inch pot next week. It looks sort of like the squat little pots that I put the cacti in, but twice the diameter. I hope some of the leaves in the sprouting bowl start to develop so I have something to put into it.

Drying time

I took the delivery of the greenhouse late last July, and just stuck whatever I could find in there for the remainder of the season. I have a detailed plan for this growing season, but there's very little to do RIGHT NOW. My first substantive action will be Feb. 24 when we get back from a trip and I put pepper seeds in the seed sprouting tray. Almost everything else will follow 2-4 weeks later, but peppers take a long time to get started. For instant gratification, I've been acquiring succulents, some of which are going into the greenhouse now while it is still winter (the Sempervivums). I received 12 succulents from Mountain Crest Gardens today. I potted up 11 of them, and am waiting for some new pots on Monday to do the last one. For now, as advised, I am resisting the temptation to water them. For a complete rundown, see the next post.

The Walmart plants from the previous round (Lola, Elfstone, California Sunset) look bigger and more robust than this batch from supposedly one of the best succulent sources, but they've had more than a week to plump up. I drove into Wyoming for a drone job yesterday and stopped at Walmart in both Riverton and Cody. The Riverton succulent display was the saddest thing I have ever seen. Everything was 50-100% dead. Cody was more like the Walmart displays I've seen in Montana, but I didn't find anything that I had to have.

Getting back to today's package, there were quite a few loose leaves, perhaps a dozen, floating around the box along with a bunch of loose dirt (see bottom paragraph). The leaves have gone into the sprouting pot, which is becoming quite crowded.

I'm putting the most hope into the jade cutting (at about 11 o'clock in the below image) that I had to behead due to a damaged stem. There's also a jade leaf at 3:00. The narrow leaves scattered in the upper half are from the new Little Jewel as it probably lost the most leaves in the Mountain Crest shipment. The five at the lower edge from the Lovely Rose are probably beyond hope. Just above them is what looks like a claw from what I've been calling the Tiger Tooth Aloe. I squeezed it today and it was firm, so apparently it is still alive even though I don't think it has grown recently. There's also a second shoot coming up on the left where it is stuck in the dirt. Not that I need them, but there are 2-inch Cuban Oregano cuttings at 10:00 and 2:00, and a little one between them. The tiny plant next to the one on the right might be a petunia. And there are leaves of 4-5 other species in there as well. I know not everything will sprout, but I hope SOMETHING eventually grows from that pot.

And finally, a shoutout to the US Postal Service. We don't have home delivery so we have to pick up packages at the post office. The box was plainly marked - "Fragile - Live Plants" with arrows labeled "UP." The clerk handed it to my wife like this. Fortunately, succulents are resilient.