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.