Book of The Week
I put my Tender Roses in Tough Climates ebook on special at Amazon only. Sorry - it takes too long for the other retailers to both raise and lower their prices.
If you get it early Saturday, it will be at 99 cents. If you wait until Sunday morning, it will likely be back at $2.99 It all depends on how fast Amazon responds. Call this the early Saturday morning reader special. (with apologies to those who wait)
This book tells those of you in cold climates how I've grown tender roses for over thirty years with no winter protection of any kind. Simple and easy tricks to have great roses in your organic garden.
Stuff to Read
Potential Winter Damage In Your Garden - and what you can do about it.
Plan for a drought summer. Practical hints and tips for dryland gardening
A book review and tons of pictures about Fairy Gardening - going to be doing one of these for my granddaughters. :-)
Seven Techniques For Controlling Deer In The Home Garden - if it isn't here, you don't need it.
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February and Taking Plant Cuttings
Taking cuttings and getting "free" plants from them is a long tradition in the gardening world and almost as good a tradition as taking cuttings and sharing them with friends. Sharing the wealth so to speak. I obtain quite a few plants in this manner from my friends and some of my most prized plants have come from other people's gardens. One of my most prized penstemons is the very rare 'Mersey Yellow' and it came from David Tomlinson's well known garden in Aurora. Whenever I look at its cheerful yellow blossoms I think of our friendship and various visits back and forth. This past winter, I learned another good gardening friend coveted this plant and I've already offered him a cutting or two for his garden. In this way, the plants go 'round the gardens and we all benefit.
While we simply don't bother keeping them over the winter, there is no reason why petunias, impatiens, dusty miller, begonias, or just about any summer garden plant can't be wintered and then cuttings taken the following spring. One plant that is regularly overwintered is the ubiquitous geranium. The double flowering, rosebud or scented leaf varieties are prized by gardeners, often handed down from generation to generation, and religiously "slipped" every spring to provide new blooms in the summer garden.
Taking cuttings from plants is easy and if you have a few geraniums overwintering in some dark corner of the basement, now is the time to start gearing them up for spring blossom production. The very first thing gardeners must do with geraniums at this time of year is to put them in places where they obtain as much sunlight as possible. This extra light will kick them into growth and when combined with the regular strength plant food fed at every watering, succulent new growth will soon appear. Watering is the regular programme of soaking thoroughly and then allowing the plant to dry until the soil is dry to the touch. Overwatering will soon rot the plant or create soft spindly growth.
When these new shoots are 3 inches long, they can be snapped or cut off the mother plant. It does not matter where they are taken from on the mother plant, as long as they are 3 inches in length, they will root well. Avoid taking the woody stems. While they will root under ideal situations, most often they simply rot instead of rooting. The new soft growth is ideal. Take as many cuttings as the mother plant will produce; once you have taken cuttings a well fed mother plant will simply produce more. In fact, the second flush of cuttings will be better and more plentiful than the first.
Take these cuttings and put them in a jar of warm water. Keep the cuttings out of the direct sunlight but make sure they stay warm. Cold temperatures and cold water will soon lead to rot. Changing the water regularly, every few days, will not hurt the rooting process. If the water starts to appear "skudgy", simply replace it with warm water. If you have English Ivy or a short branch of a willow (!%#%* Willow or Weeping Willow are fine) you can insert this into the glass along with the geranium cuttings. The hormones given off by the willow or ivy will assist the geranium rooting process.
As soon as the cuttings have roots that are 1 inch long, pot them up in a good potting soil. Keep out of the direct sunlight for a few days and keep well watered. After three days, the root tips will have changed their composition from water based to soil based and the will really begin to function. At this time, increased light levels will be beneficial as will a regular watering procedure of soaking and then allowing the soil to dry to the touch. Start feeding with half strength fertilizer once a week and gradually increase the strength and frequency over a period of one month. After this time, the roots should be out to the edge of the pot and full strength feeding can take place.
This growing geranium will now require full sunlight in order to grow into a bushy plant. If less than full sunlight is available, once the plant is 6 inches tall and has 4 to 5 leaves, the growing point can be pinched out. Pinching out the growing point forces this plant to develop side shoots and bush out. Keep in the sunniest windowsill possible, but by the time the side shoots begin to elongate, it will be time to put the plant outdoors for the daytime in a hardening off process. The full sunlight during the daylight hours will work its magic and good strong plants will be the result.
Obviously, at this time we want to avoid freezing night temperatures but cool days in a sheltered location will not hurt well rooted geraniums.
Starting your own spring plants is not difficult and it does lead to all sorts of new plants and new gardens. Try taking a few cuttings or plan on saving some plants in the fall for next year at this time.
That's one of the things I like about gardening. There's always room to plan and no matter how old you get, you have to plan and dream of "next year" and all the wonderful plants you'll grow.


