Remembering

Funny how having an old e-mail provider let you know theyre taking down the site, so all the important info that's in there is going to be lost forever in a couple of weeks forces one to go through inbox and sent and figure out what to print or copy-save.  AND, how many e-mail links there are--like Amazon and others.  A couple of hours have evaporated and there's still much to do.

Oh, and the long set of e-mails about my mother's death...

Here are the three, 2-gallon Karl Foerster Reed grasses I bought.

Here is one of the grasses after the root ball was cut in half.

And, finally, the six new grasses after they've been re-potted. This was taken just after they were divided, but it's a week later and they're still doing fine.

This is a nice quart-size hens and chicks (Sempervivum) from Glover Perennials which I want to divide to get a lot of smaller plants. I've taken it out of the pot (one little plant broke off in the process so it has already been planted.Here is a close-up of the root ball--this is an excellent early-season pot, with a rich dark, fairly loose organic growing medium and roots showing to the bottom, but not root-bound. Basically, you tease this apart and the little hens and chicks can be snapped off and replanted. If you find one that doesn't yet have roots, leave it attached (the attachment is about pencil-lead think, usually about an inch long, and is tough enough if you're gentle) to one that does have roots (usually a larger one). I fill the pot about half full and hold it at an angle so the soil surface is diagonal to the top of the pot. I then lay the little plant on the slanted surface, holding the plant slightly above the dirt, and add dirt to the pot, turning it upright and shaking gently as I do so. This results in roots facing down and the plant nicely settled in the pot.

Once the pots are done (I use recycled Proven Winner pots and trays a lot because they're light-weight, handy and I get them free from work when we plant up our flower boxes). You'll note there are several pots with two "hens" (one hen and one chick?) and I replanted a cluster of about five back in the pot they came in. This I'll use as a "mother" plant, meaning, as it sends out more small plants, I'll re-pot those to add to the garden. I never divide and plant directly in the garden as it is a stressful operation and I can monitor growth, watering and exposure to sunlight much easier with a tray of plants than in the garden itself. Oh, and, yes, I labeled them after I took the above shot!

I also divided some nice #2 size Karl Foerster Reed Grasses and hope to get those pictures up this weekend.

THe warm weather also caused my three little plots of marsh marigold to appear. I bought one 1 gallon pot and divided it into four plantings, one oc which was pulled up and destroyed--I think by deer. The other three look like this.

One problem we're having already this year is a lack of rain. I was hoping we'd get some last night and today but it looks like very little will actually fall. Can't believe I might have to water in March!

Last fall I planted some trout lilies (dogtooth violets) in the oak/blueberry woods towards the swamp and they're starting to come up!

I planted 28 Black Mondo Grass seeds and ended up with...28 seedlings! When I potted them up I decided to double up most of them, since I'm not even sure what I'll do with 14+ pots, let alone 28. Anyway, it's fun to have something germinate so well--a lot of my experiments don't work out. I don't know if it matters, but the seeds weren't collected until some time in December, so they had a month or more of freezing nights, though the weather this year has been particularly mild.

The weihenstephaner gold sedum grew quickly last year and overwintered well so I picked a few 1.5 to 2-inch long stems and simply inserted the cut end into potting soil. I probably should have used some rooting hormone but sedum doesn't seem to need it. We'll see how they do, but I expect near-100% rooting.