Another tunia haircut

Most of my Aloe Vera looks abused due to overwatering, bad light and/or bugs, but I have one perfect little plant that has been sitting on an upper shelf in a garage window that has escaped all of that. It isn't growing very fast now, but I'm expecting great things once it moves to the greenhouse in a little over a month. Next to it on that upper shelf is Petunia #2, the cutting I took Nov. 15. It was becoming a monster and threatening to swallow the aloe. I knew something had to be done. If it was May and it was in the greenhouse now, I would give it a haircut, repot it, and hit it with fertilizer. But in the limited space of the garage, I don't want it taking up more space than it already is, so a haircut is all I was able to do. Here are before and after images of #2 next to the perfect little aloe.

Petunias are not annuals, they are "tender perrenials," which means they will survive in a heated garage over the winter and be ready to go outside again come warmer weather. I have the big Pentunia #1 pot that I kept from last summer, Petunia #2, and three or four plastic cups that contain cuttings from #1's haircut at the end of January. (BTW, #1 has grown about five inches since the trim six weeks ago.) I don't really want that many of this type of petunia, whatever it is. Some sort of purple-veined hybrid from Home Depot is my best guess. All of this is just practice. Propagating from petunia cuttings is something I want to be good at next fall when the Supertunias are about to get frozen.

Eight of the 12 flowers I'm getting from Garden Crossings the second week of May are Supertunias. There also are two each of Superbells and Superbenas, but I'm not sure if I will attempt anything with them. With all of the succulents I've bought recently, garage space is at a premium and I will have to make some tough choices when the greenhouse heat goes off next November. I counted today and I've got 10 peppermint plants. I do not need 10 peppermint plants. I need about four so I can have something in greenhouse window boxes that the deer won't eat. And if they do eat it, I won't care. Some of the peppermint may get moved to a dark corner after Monday, which appears to be the date for the next succulent shipment unboxing. I should have known not to believe that crap from the USPS about delivery today, but I'm just a starry-eyed optimist. Of course after months of a mild winter, we are having a blizzard today and the heat pack I bought with the order is probably almost drained.

I anticipate the flower baskets with the 12 Supers will be outside from June 1 to August 31, then they will take refuge in the greenhouse when frost threatens and survive in some form until mid-November. With that assumption, this is the plan:

• Don't wait until November, start taking tunia cuttings in September.
• Use rooting hormone.
• Take more than one cutting from each variety. If some of them don't prosper by mid-October, there will be time take more cuttings.
• The cuttings don't have to become monsters like #1 and #2, they just have to survive the winter in relatively small pots.

Macro

Fun with a macro lens. Some of these are new, some have been around for six weeks. Let's start with Lola.

It looked like Lola was sending up a flower stalk around Feb. 4.
Then it noticed, "I'm not in a warm place" and abandoned the effort.

Perle von Nurnberg is a bit more purple than Red Sky (next image).

Red Sky

Neon Breakers color reminds me of the previous two, but it also has the ruffles.

Raindrops had a rough transit but is looking better a month later.

The Trader Joe's no-name Echeveria is a perfect little rosette.

My first Aeonium, Floresens. Those aren't my water spots; I'm careful.

The Setosa will get even hairier and develop some color.

It all started when I wanted to get a jade.

Survivor

Every since a dried-up little ball rolled out of the Plants for Pets box on Jan. 29, I haven't known whether it was alive. Today there is proof that it is.

The parents to this little ball, three rosettes of Sempervivum arachnoideum, appear to have been damaged in the frost of Feb. 19, but I think they will make it. Unlike two other Semps which did not, and a couple others which might not.

The little ball measures about 7/8ths of an inch. I considered whether to try cleaning the debris off it, but don't think it can be done without damaging the webbing. Here is a picture of it Feb. 16. The webbing was thicker then and it was hard to tell if there was actual green underneath, but today there is no doubt.

The webbing on the plants in the parent pot is still to thick to see the extent of the damage from freezing, but I believe I see green in there. Wishful thinking perhaps. But in any event, the formerly-dried up ball is ready to take their place if need be.

Something new

I have 17 varieties of Echeveria because they are such nice little plants, but sometimes I need something new. I took an unexpected drive to Cody today to accomplish a task that took two seconds once I was on site, so to make the trip worthwhile I went by Walmart to see what they had. They had a really big Echeveria of a type I hadn't heard of, but I also saw this little Bear's Paw, Cotyledon ladismithiensis. After checking the interweb, it seems to be the most famous of the small genus Cotyledon. This one seemed really dry and almost limp, so I violated the Inviolable Rules of Succulents and watered it right after I potted it. Here's a quick phone photo just before it got water.

My spouse brought eight 4-inch terra cotta pots to the marriage, and I wondered what I was going to do with them. They seemed too small for anything. That was before I discovered succulents. I believe I now have 14 such pots, including one I purchased today for the Bear's Paw because I didn't have anything available. I have the gray one I just 3D printed, but it has been too windy to seal it with the clear enamel I use.

I won't even mention how many 6-inch terra cotta pots I have bought in the past nine months. It's a bigger number than the 4s. The plants have been a considerable expense in recent months, but the pots and the dirt add up also.

Bowls

I have two large bowls I'm using for random plants that need a place to live. In the 8-inch Bonsai, I've got just three things so far, the unidentified Echeveria, the unidentified Grapto-something (both extras from the Ramsey order), and an unidentified cutting that I got from my nephew. I ordered two Echeveria Purpusorums by mistake a few days ago, and the extra will end up in this bowl.

I have a little bit more of a plan with the 10-inch Montage. Starting at the back left and going somewhat clockwise:

• Oscularia deltoides Ice Plant - This is a spreader, and it is big enough now to take about half of it and put it elsewhere.
• Haworthia limifolia Fairy Washboard - Recently-planted pup, the only Haworthia to escape my office so far.
• Cuban Oregano - I stuck this in there just to fill in some space. If it gets too big it can go elsewhere.
• Senecio haworthii Cocoon Plant - Another plant where I could take half of it and put it elsewhere.
• Sedum adolphi Shooting Stars - Another spreader, I could re-allocate two-thirds of this.
• Echeveria Lilac Mist (center) - I got four rosettes of this, and put one of them in here.
• Crassula perforata variegata
• Rosemary, another filler that doesn't have to be here.

The two bowls may spend some time in the greenhouse, but I envision they will spend most of the summer on our patios. Many succulents want good light but not direct noonday sun. The front patio gets morning sun, and the back gets evening light. The locations are under cover so won't get rained on (much), and I can bring them inside if a windy downpour is expected.

I've been pondering whether to summer the succulents, about 50, in the greenhouse. The 50 I'm not sure about excludes the house plants (Haworthias, Crassulas, cacti) which definitely will not move, and the multiple pots of Cuban Oregano and Aloe which will be in the greenhouse for sure. It includes most of the Echeverias, Graptos, Pachyphytums, Sedums/hybrids, and the surviving Sempervivums (moment of silence, please).

The raised beds in the greenhouse are getting strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and flowers, and there will be strawberry baskets and various large pots/grow bags. I'm planning on setting up irrigation, so it likely is to get a bit humid in there, which a lot of succulents don't like. But if I keep them in the garage, they may get overheated. Here in the Montana foothills the humidity is usually quite low, and even when the greenhouse gets steamed up during a watering, it usually comes down quickly. And I'll try to set the sprinklers so they don't shoot water into the air. So I answered my own question, the 50 will be moving over there for the summer.

More pictures

I've posted a few images of the recent Ramsey order but still had 13 to do. I shot 11 of them today using focus bracketing, shooting 24 images of each at various focus points. I stacked as few as eight images and as many as all 24 to get the final results. I still have to take a shot of the Bonsai Bowl which contains the two unidentified extras. I also included a couple shots from the greenhouse of the four healthy Sempervivums and the "Spring has sprung" alliums.

I'm now aware of a significant limitation of focus bracketing in macro photography. With a mostly-flat surface like a coin being shot at an angle, it works great. With a subject like a plant which has leaves in front of other leaves, the process can not bring a back leaf into focus where it is close (line of sight) to a front leaf. When the back leaf is in focus, the front leaf is blurry and that blur covers part of the back leaf. You can see it in most of these images, for example the leaves at about 2:00 in the first image. I think the AI in Photoshop helps a little bit but sometimes makes things worse, as it did with the Sedum Jelly Bean stack. I had to clean that up a little bit.

With these plants, the problem can be minimized by shooting from a higher angle, which I should do anyway with something like the Cubic Frost to better show off its structure. I also could shoot with a smaller aperture, but as is usual in photography there are tradeoffs, namely longer shutter speeds and less blurring of the far background which you do not want to be in focus. For all of these images, I stopped down from the lens maximum aperture of f/2.8 to f/4.0, but that had minimal effect.

In no particular order, the recent additions include:

Echeveria Setosa Var. Deminuta, a fuzzy Echeveria.

Echeveria Blue Curls, there is some leaf damage on this from hitting the edge
of the pot it was in, it looks more red than blue. We will see how it develops.

Echeveria Lilac Mist, came with four rosettes, I pulled one off and
put it in the Montage bowl. I seems a bit more green than when I got it.

Echeveria Compressicaulis, a more upright Echeveria.

Echeveria Chroma, it shifts colors with the seasons, I have high hopes for this one.

Echeveria Cubic Frost, weird leaves, an overhead shot would do it more
justice. There are three distinct rosettes and I may divide it at some point.

March 13: Here's that overhead shot of Echeveria Cubic Frost.

Sempervivum Strawberry Kiwi, my first Chick Charms.

Graptosedum Alpenglow, colorful, can trail.

Sedum Jelly Bean in a 3D-printed pot.

Aeonium Floresens, my first Aeonium.

Sedum Firestorm.

I did stop at the greenhouse today. It's only three weeks until things really start happening there. The four Sempervivums who survived the Semperpocalypse still seem fine. The allium has some limp leaves, but all the interweb advice is that these do not need much moisture. My moisture meter says the surface is dry but there is moisture down deep. I resisted the temptation and did not water either the Semps or the allium.

I did it again

Even though I acknowledge that I already have enough succulents, I can't help but check the online stores to see if some of the rarities have come into stock. I found Echeveria Rainbow (the variegated Perle variant) in a 4-inch pot at The Next Gardener for the low low price of $22.10 and put together an order to reach free shipping at $49. Unfortunately I noticed two seconds after hitting the button that I had two Echeveria Purpusorums, the red-spotted variety that has been out of stock at Mountain Crest for weeks. Oh well, rather than mess around with changing the order, one will get a pot and the other will be prominent in the Bonsai Bowl.

This Rainbow image is downloaded from Mountain Crest, which has been out of stock of 2-inch pots (list price $14.99) for as long as I have been checking, but has 4-inch pots for $29.99. I guess paying more than $2.50 per plant (typical price at Ramsey) makes me a collector.

Other items in the order are Pachyphytum Apricot Beauty (self-explanatory), Echeveria Linda Jean (very dark), and Crassula cv. Buddha's Temple (stacked leaves). So I need to find five pots, and I currently have only one terra cotta available unless some more of my frost-damaged Sempervivums die (three are lingering). I moved the two unknowns from the recent Ramsey order to the Bonsai Bowl to free up two more terra cottas, and moved a rosemary that I had been raising as a succulent (4" green ceramic, cactus soil) to a plastic pot. I also was going to put the Trader Joe's unknown Echeveria into the Bonsai Bowl, but it looks so perfect in its 4" green ceramic that I just couldn't. Instead I printed a gray pot with the same design as the other two I printed, but 20% larger. Here's a portrait of Echeveria Trader Joe's in the pot in which it will stay. There's a little bit of scarring on the underside of the leaves from hitting the rim of the 2.5-inch pot it was in formerly, but other than that it is a perfect rosette:

I have been remiss in not posting an official (non-blurry) portrait of Echeveria Neon Breakers, which I've had since Feb. 27. The coloration looks like Red Sky and Perle, and it has ruffles. Here it is with the plant tag that I 3D printed. The letters are probably twice as tall as they need to be, but I'm still learning how to do things. I'm not going to tag absolutely everything, but it will be in the dozens.

I heard about The Next Gardener in a YouTube video. As might be expected, all of the retailers I've been looking at are in California, many between LA and San Diego but several further north. I don't want to live in the People's Republic of California, but I envy their weather for raising succulents. The Next Gardener supposedly is in Fallbrook, CA, but some of the tracking information they provided made me wonder where these plants were actually coming from. Their address is a PO Box, and their shipping partner is Noblepicks, which sets off all sorts of alarm bells in the Google AI overview. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not ordering a laptop getting shipped from China.

March 12: USPS tracking showed that they got the package in Fallbrook yesterday and left San Diego early this morning. "Delivery" is scheduled for Saturday, so I hope the 72-hour heat pack holds out. We don't actually have any sort of home mail delivery (I never heard of such a thing before I moved here) so I have to pick it up at the Post Office. The temperature is OK through Saturday, but plunges Saturday night. If I am unable to pick up the package Saturday, it should be inside the heated building and not sitting on a truck somewhere. I hope.

Leaf bowl

Whenever I have a loose succulent leaf, or a cutting (intentional or unintentional), it goes into the leaf bowl. It started out as a white plastic pot in the garage, but when I moved it inside to get more warmth I switched to an 8-inch Bonsai pot. In the last week or so it has stretched beyong the boundaries of the pot into seven littler pots. The Bonsai pot is really too nice to get stuck with this duty and I'm going to convert it into a smaller version of the 10-inch Montage. But this is what I had starting today, demonstrating various stages of success.

At the upper left is the Bonsai pot. The five narrow leaves at the top are Little Jewels that seem to be developing roots. The next leaf is one I took off Lola just a few days ago and is in better shape than this image conveys. Next is a jade leaf that has been in there for a long time and doesn't seem to be doing anything. Just below that is the spiked aloe sprig, same story. The bottom part of the bowl is miscellaneous leaves with not much going on. At center is the pup I found buried in the Haworthia Cooperii pot I received yesterday. The white-tipped shoots below that and on the left edge also are from that pot. I'm letting those dry out and will plant them in 2-inch pots in a few days. The variegated square fell off of a Crassula perforata variegata about 10 days ago and I hope it eventually sends out roots. Nothing yet.

To the right is a 4-inch pot with String of Bananas pieces I got from my nephew. I think there are some little roots developing and I'm trying to keep those nodes in contact with the soil.

At lower right is a small bowl with three more Little Jewel leaves and one other random one. All are developing roots so I gave them their own bowl.

In the rectangular plastic tray are, from left, a piece of the Crassula Capitella Campfire that wasn't rooted well in the main pot, an unknown leaf that is sprouting, the jade cutting that finally seems to be developing roots, a cutting from one of my nephew's larger plants that has a little plant developing on the end, and the small pup from the Haworthia Cooperii that I divided today.

The leaves do not need water. If they root and produce a little plant, they get their moisture and nutrition from the leaf until it is shriveled up. After I took this photo I did spritz the jade cutting, the Crassula plant, and the String of Bananas. The first two are plants, not leaves, and the last one doesn't have thick leaves to draw from. I think the little roots growing from each of them would like to find at least a little bit of moisture. My theory, it might be totally wrong.

As mentioned, I want to put the Bonsai pot into production with real plants, so I 3D printed two small trays to hold the 2-inch pots and transferred all the leaves to the rectangular tray, without soil. I get all my succulent information (or a lot of it) from Australian YouTubers, and Kat @SucculentGrowingTips says the soil is not necessary at this stage. She waits until both roots and tiny leaves develop before putting them in soil, and only one of mine meets that criteria now (upper right in the rectangular tray). If some of these plants keep developing, they might end up in the bonsai bowl for real, although if I rely just on what is shown here it might lean heavily toward Little Jewel propagations.

Pups and 3D Printing

I need pots and saucers for all of the little plants I've been accumulating, and I've been trying to find alternatives to just buying more stuff on Amazon. Three Haworthias occupy ceramic coffee cups with holes drilled in the bottom, and I just got a 3D printer. I printed two versions of the pot shown below, this first one (with the new Sedum Jelly Bean) with Jade White filament.

The other version of this pot was printed with "white-brown stone" filament. As it turned out, in bright light that means light pink with some flecks. In lower light, it does sort of look like the description. That pot got put to use today. I split up the Haworthia limifolia Fairy Washboard, which had three pups (two huge, one tiny) growing out of it in its little coffee cup. The big pups are shown here, and the small one is out of sight to the right.

When I dumped the cup, only half of the soil came out with the plant which isn't surprising since I planted it just a month ago. The roots appeared very healthy, but the soil was still moist a week after the last watering, which concerned me. The risk of using glazed ceramic instead of terra cotta is it does not dry out as fast, which could cause problems with succulents. I also noticed that the big 10-inch ceramic planter (aka "The Montage") isn't drying out very fast. I need to be especially careful with ceramic. This is what the cup dump looked like, with the big pups on the left and the little one on the right.

It took a little bit of effort to snap off the big pups, but I had courage from watching an Australian manhandle his haworthias on YouTube. Here is one of the big pups in The Montage between the Ice Plant and a Cuban Oregano cutting. I stuck the CO and a rosemary cutting into The Montage just to fill up space and I wasn't sure they would stay there. When I tug on them there is some resistance, so they might have rooted already.

Here are the main plant in the 3D-printed pot, the little pup in a 2-inch plastic pot, and the other big pup planted back in the ceramic cup. I also stuck a stray chunk of root into the little pot. After watching the Australian YouTuber, it seems like any little chunk might sprout into a new plant.

The Haworthias are on the front lines of my 3D printing efforts so far. I am using three coffee cups now, all with Haworthias, and I 3D printed saucers for them. The saucers I had been using were all too tall and hit the cup handle. Also, I broke a saucer for one of my small ceramic pots, and replaced it with a simple 3D print. Maybe as I get better I will replace the saucer with one that has a blue rim, like the original. Unfortunately the Hawortha attentuata Concolor (coffee cup) and the Haworthia Zebra (ceramic pot) have not produced any pups yet. I've had them less than a month; yes, I'm impatient. I received and potted the Haworthia Cooperi yesterday in a coffee cup. This is one of those that has the translucent leaves. It came in a 2-inch pot and it looked like they took a plant from elsewhere and jammed it in there. I found a couple pieces under the main plant, and these are now drying and I will try to plant them. Here's Cooperii's portrait in its coffee cup.

As I get more filament colors, I will be printing different designs in the 3.5- to 5-inch range. For anything bigger than that, I will continue to go with real terra cotta or ceramic. 3D PLA filament is not designed to last long when exposed to moisture, so I did hit the pots and saucers with some clear Rustoleum enamel to perhaps slow down any deterioration.

Unboxing

Every time I unbox an order from an online succulent store, I say, "Never again." The carelessness of the Post Office and the fact I can't see something before I buy it makes it seem not worth the hassle. But the fact remains that online stores are the only places where I can get varieties that aren't carried by Home Depot or Walmart. The local stores sometimes have some nice, overpriced plants, but the selection is not tremendous. I tried a new online store this time, Ramsey Succulents of Vista, CA. Compared to Mountain Crest, they are by far cheaper and the quality seems the same if not better. Mountain Crest probably has more of the real rarities (which often aren't in stock), but Ramsey has a lot of what I'm looking for right now.

Today I unboxed 16 items from my Ramsey order of 14, cost $42.57 with free shipping over $40.

The plant pots did not have ID stickers, one of my pet peeves, but I was able to figure out with (some) certainty what they all are, except for the two extras (#6 and #10). From top left, row by row:

1. Sedum Jelly Bean, seemed like something basic I had to have to do planters.
2. Echeveria Lilac Mist, lots of rosettes.
3. Echeveria Cubic Frost, weird leaves.
4. Echeveria Blue Curls, some leaf damage
5. Sempervivum Strawberry Kiwi, my first Chick Charms (five more varieties on order from Garden Crossings).
6. I'm not sure what this is. I thought it might be the Graptosedum Alpenglow, but there's one pictured in the next row that I'm more sure of. My guess is it is some other type of Graptosedum or Graptoveria.
7. Echeveria Compressicaulis, a more upright Echeveria.
8. Echeveria Setosa Var. Deminuta, a fuzzy Echeveria.
9. Echeveria Chroma, shifting colors with the seasons.
10. I'm not sure what this is, except it is an Echeveria.
11. Crassula Sarmentosa, more of a vining habit than other Crassulas.
12. Crassula Capitella Campfire, will turn bright red with enough sun.
13. Graptosedum Alpenglow, colorful, can trail.
14. Haworthia Cooperi. This plant was jammed into that 2-inch pot, and I was able to pull off a pup and another small piece as I was replanting. They are in the leaf bowl callusing over.
15. Aeonium Floresens, my first Aeonium. It seems like most varieties get very big, so it may take over the garage someday.
16. Sedum Firestorm, colorful like the Sedum Shooting Star I got recently, but bigger.

I pulled one each of the Lilac Mist and Alpenglow rosettes and stuck them in the 10-inch planter (aka "The Montage") I did last week. The Cubic Frost has three distinct rosettes, and some of the other pots also have multiples. I'll wait until Spring actually arrives before I think about splitting them. In addition to the pup pulled off the Haworthia, I also threw a few loose leaves into the leaf bowl. My previous order with Mountain Crest, it seemed like half the leaves fell off the Pachyphytum compactum Little Jewel. A large number of them now are developing roots in the leaf bowl. I'm not sure I want eight Little Jewels, but that's where this is heading.

Here are the two Crassulas, Sarmentosa and Campfire. The world's most powerful mirrorless camera (Canon R5 Mark II and RF 100mm macro lens) really shows all the details, including the dirt on the leaves from the planting process. I had to pull a weak stem off the Campfire, but I stuck it in a little pot and we'll see if it grows. I'll post images of the others as I get to them.

[For those interested in such things, Photoshop's focus bracketing processing isn't always perfect. There's what I can only call ghosting around the leaves in the Campfire image at 5:00 and 8:00. This affects the part of the background which is out of focus at first and later is supposed to come into focus but can't because of the blurred object in front of it. Photoshop's "Remove" tool can be used for additional processing, but I decided just to leave it.]

The Strawberry Kiwi arrives at a sad time for my Sempervivums. The Coral Reef and Cherry Glow are definitely dead. The Orion had two rosettes, with one now dead and the other barely holding on. The unidentified ones I call #2 and #3 perhaps are not dead, but they don't look good. The Arachnoideum might be OK under its webbing, but I really can't tell. The remaining four Sempervivums are still in the greenhouse and were fine at last check. My current theory on the Semperpocalypse is the ones that apparently froze were not as dried out as they should have been to withstand a temperature of 6F. I saw a video with Debra Lee Baldwin (noted succulent author) recently where she said that Sempervivums are hardy, "if dry."

I've said this before, but that should be it for succulent purchases for a while. That's not to say there aren't a few things on my wish list: Graptoveria Fred Ives (huge, prolific), Ghost Echeveria (ghost white), Echeveria Purpusorum Dionysos (variegated red), Sempervivum Virgil Ford (colorful, prolific), Lapidaria margaretae - Karoo Rose (weird), Echeveria Rainbow (an even more colorful Perle variety), Crassula Buddha's Temple (stacked leaves), Greenovia aurea variegata (like an Aeonium, but unique in their own way), and Kalanchoe Humilis Desert Surprise (purple stripes). It's hard to find them in stock all at the same time at Mountain Crest or Succulents Depot, and they have minimum order sizes to get free shipping. Mountain Crest is out of stock on so many things on my wish list that I'm $27.59 away from free shipping on what is in my cart. At Succulents Depot (who I have never ordered from), my shopping cart currently is $16.22 short of free shipping.

In non-succulent news, both types of pepper seeds (bell and mild Jalapeno) have been the highlight of the seed starting room. I read that peppers take a long time to sprout and become plantable, but with the heat mat they started coming up within a few days. The basil, thyme, coleus and onions have come up but are not shooting up like the peppers are. The Bergamot (Bee Balm) looks OK but I have to kill aphids every few days. There is a marigold flowering in the seed room that also attracts aphids on occasion. It is a never-ending battle. I just started three 2-inch pots of broccoli. Around April 1, I will start tomatoes in the seed room. I'm probably a month away from turning the heat back on in the greenhouse and direct sowing carrots, a few beets and peas. A few weeks later will be the lettuce, cilantro, green onions, sunflowers, STRAWBERRIES, and maybe a potato in a grow bag.

I have been trying to propogate aloe and Cuban Oregano. The little aloe pots look sick and I may stop trying until the greenhouse is in operation. Some of the Cuban Oregano cuttings are a bit yellow and probably need a hit of nitrogen, but I'm holding off on fertilizing anything because the garage is crowded enough as it is. I gave petunia pot #2 and the geranium cuttings a shot of fertilizer Feb. 15. They really need bigger pots now, but I don't have anywhere to put them. Besides the aloe, Cuban Oregano and all the succulents, also taking up a lot of space in the garage are multiple peppermint pots.

Greenhouse season is fast approaching. In early April before doing any direct seeding, I want to get a cubic yard of compost to spread on top of the planters and to supplement the soil mix in the hanging baskets and pots/grow bags. Succulents have been a diversion during this down time, but it will get real busy soon.