Moving plants and Escalations of Commitments

It's hard moving plants.  I was continuing on with designing my backyard.  And every time I looked at that cold frame, I grimaced.  When I originally started on the back yard you could not see the cold frame.  But as I cleared the trees from around the house, it was blatant.  I worked hard to get that bed right.  It had manure,  weed screen, soaker hose hooked to a timer and a cold frame...Those were some thought about strawberries!  I don't like to move plants because I have an escalation of commitment   I put so much work in it to move it!  Well, that's true, but I will still grimace, so I was gonna have to move it.

If I moved to cold frame next to the greenhouse I could store a  lot of plants in it because my green house was getting full.

The rose hip pallets from the the last blog I wrote.

When people get lily plants for Easter, they throw the plant away when it s dead.  I ask for the bulbs.  They grow back and you don't have to think about them.

I am SOOOO glad I decided not plant this after I bought it.  This is called a Princess Tree.  I am returning it to the  nursery or killing it....It is a beautiful plant, that will take over your entire property and everyone elses.   I believe it's illegal in the state of Connecticut but could be wrong, so I had an escalation of commitment here but I am glad I didn't.  Here is the link about the Princess Tree.

This is where things get really "chicken and egg"  I have bought conservatively over $10,000 worth of plants for roughly $140.00.  They average around $1.00 a piece.  I have a red maple in here (which I bought for $1.87) in the back that desperately needs to go into the ground.  So if I don't plant them, I get at stand still waiting for the perfect moment.  What I have been doing is planting plants where I KNOW I want them.

Here is the cold frame in the back ground.  As you can see I have been busy planting things .  I have been busy putting all those ornamentals in the ground and I kept staring at the cold frame.

Bed by the corner window coming along

While I was slowly designing my back yard, I started to notice "paths" and I thought ...great idea...so people don't walk through my rose garden.

This the cold frame after being removed.....much better...the strawberries are still there but Ill move them

So I started other paths out of the pool area.  Here I had two pittosporums in the front (there is a rose bush and a sky pencil in front of it.  Camellias in the back.

Now that cold frame houses all the plants that was making it hard to go in the green house

Much better, I can walk through it now

This is hard to believe, but earlier in the day it was 98 degrees in here.  It was 55 degrees outside.  I need a thermometer with more numbers!

Other propagation methods I try is cutting...those cutting behind the water bottle are a couple of months old so I guess they are still living...when do I put them in the ground???

Propagation-Rose hips, layering, cuttings, etc

If you are new to my blog, you may want to know that I am a beginner.  So do take what I am saying is the right way...I could be very well wrong.    As a matter of fact, my garden is now one year old.  The first plants I planted were Encore Azaleas.  The picture I took was on January 20, 2012..so I suppose it's my garden's birthday.  

It was raining today, so I thought what a good day to get some seeds started.  I had some rose hips (some I conditioned) that I wanted to plant....for the record I may be doing a fool's errand because they didn't look mature...but what they hey!  Get my money back, right?

My attempts at propagation in the past were miserable failures.  I did manage to get one rose seed to grow in a tiny pot.  I made a horrible mistake.  I put it and other seeds I attempted to sow in pots in the rain...BIG MISTAKE.  They all died.  I don't if it was the pelting rain or the fact that the potting soil formed a crust but I won't make that mistake again.

The most successful I have been at propagation was what is called the layering method.  This is where you scab a low growing branch....shred the out side of the branch...but some root hormone on it, put some soil underneath, and put a rock on top of it.  This worked really well for me.  I managed to propagate a hydrangea and an azalea this way.  There is, also, something called air layering but I have yet to try that one.

I got this off the web that is pretty good...to see the link it's from HydrangeasHydrangeas.com.  I am new to blogging but I do want to give credit etc for other people stuff 

In any event, below is today's escapades.

Here is one of my rose hips.  I had some and I began slicing it open to get the seeds out(which now I have debris under my nails that is very painful.)

After I took out the seeds, I put them in a bowl.  Evidently you can tell the viable seeds from non-viable by which ones float.  Floating seeds are good, non-floating probably not so good.  No matter, I planted them all anyway.

The other propagation method I have used is cuttings.  These are bougainvillea cuttings.  

These are the plats I plan on putting the rose seeds in.

I am putting in peat moss.  The tray underneath on the right.  I plan on putting on black weed blocker and laying out peat moss.  Now, I did not label where these rose hips came from.  I am sure that I will regret that in the future but what's the point of being a beginner if I can't be lazy and impatient :)

Sorry for the blurriness.  Someone gave me some roses....I thought to give me cuttings.  I quickly cut off the rose and the bottom leaving a couple of leaves.  I moistened the bottom of cutting and I put rooting hormone on the bottom and I spray them often to keep them moist.  This was done a couple of months ago and considering the leaves are still green so I think it's rooted...  Makes me consider going to the store and going to the florist department find a rose that I love and make a cutting out of it.  There is a thought.....   

The root hormone is pretty cheap...

Sometimes I just stuck a branch in the ground that accidentally broke off and it worked.  But the root hormone is suggested.

The greenhouse is looking less cluttered now that the bare roots are in the ground.

On the way to the greenhouse with the bowl above some of the seeds splashed  out of the bowl :(  So I knew I had more rose hips so I went out to cut them.  When I brought them back I thought wow...I don't want to peel all of those.

So what do I do?  Put them in a blender!  Sounds crazy right?  Well, this is what I read about that.  This link is very informative.  Texas A & M link.

So I put them in the blender...

Now I have this mush....  I poured water in it and now it's soaking....don't think I am not tempted  to put the whole thing in a plat and call it compost...... so we will see how this goes....

Back on the home front, (or the back yard) I played with the trial landscaper program.  I use the free version but I may break down and buy the complete version  My mother wanted to see the lorapetelum so I wanted to post this.