Phaedra's 2023 Adventure

[AMKuska]

Is that written in Japanese on the side notes? I recognize a couple of characters from studying, but I think Chinese and Japanese share a lot of kanji

 

[Phaedra]

Is that written in Japanese on the side notes? I recognize a couple of characters from studying, but I think Chinese and Japanese share a lot of kanji

It's traditional Chinese.

 

[AMKuska]

It's traditional Chinese.

Thanks! I wonder if I get better at Japanese if I'd be able to read Chinese too.

 

[Phaedra]

Thanks! I wonder if I get better at Japanese if I'd be able to read Chinese too.

Yes, it helps a lot, as Kanji uses the same characters as in traditional Chinese, and both refer to the character writing system known in Chinese. Before I learned Japanese, I could understand most of the signs written in Kanji as a tourist.

 

[Phaedra]

Besides weekly sowing, I also had my hands-on practice - dividing two perennials.

Chrysanthemum maximum - the flower is like a much larger ox-eye daisy. I grew them from seeds last year.

It belongs to the Aster family and is also a rhizomatous perennial - very easy to propagate via dividing. As long as there are roots and buds, the divided ones will become new plants. Not much different from those basal shoots with roots or runners with roots, in my opinion

I removed larger and damaged leaves (and they will become hens' food tomorrow, no waste), trimmed the roots, and repotted them into 9cm pots.

Sedum telephium - Autumn Joy
It's one of the plants I bought when we moved into this house, and about four years old now. It was originally so tiny but is well-developed and huge. I have to remove at least one, so they won't cram in the small flower bed.

Sedum telephium belongs to mat-forming succulents, which form a rooted mat. Established plants can be propagated after cutting into smaller clumps.

I cut it into four and then further into even smaller clumps in the greenhouse. The red color one in the front is one common cultivar of mulleins, which was super hardy. I dug it out before winter and then completely forgot it. And it is still alive and ready to grow! I will divide it tomorrow as well.

For tracking individual growth, I made tags with serial numbers.
No.12~13 without roots / No.14 only roots - Well, I assumed succulents could be propagated from leaves and roots—nothin— to lose from taking a try.

Mmm, it must be wonderful when I plant all of them with MUMs and Autumn Asters outside the chicken run! They are all safe (for chickens and dogs), resilient, low maintenance, pollinator-friendly, and hardy perennials. I can already imagine how wonderful it will look when all propagated plants mature in a few years.

 

[meadow]

May I ask what the excel headers say?

 

[Phaedra]

May I ask what the excel headers say?

You mean each column? Basically, I want to have a rough idea about how many days they need, from sowing to germinating and harvesting, how many seedlings I prick out and survive till the end, how many I can harvest, etc. I also use this chance to check their names in Chinese, English, German and scientific names.

I also want to find the patterns and build my succession plan.

 

[Phaedra]

My #3 perennial propagation via dividing - yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris), not mullein.

It existed in the garden when we moved in; however, it became bigger and bigger, and kind of blocked our way to one of the rain butts. I dug half of it out last autumn.
Let's get this done!

As L. vulgaris is a hairy perennial that forms clumps by creeping stolons or rhizomes, so dividing is the quickest way to propagate them. Their flowers are nice elements in a bouquet, and the plant itself has medicinal properties.

I repotted them in the 7cm nursery pots and totally got 9 pots.

My dividing practices will keep going on with sowing, as I have bearded Iris, hostas, and daylilies waiting.

 

[Branching Out]

I have a whole bunch of Stella d'Oro daylilies that need dividing, but I never would have thought to take small cuttings for potting up. You are a great role model Phaedra. Do you ever sleep??

 

[Phaedra]

My #4 perennial propagation via dividing - Daylily (Hemerocallis)

I don't know the exact variety they are. They were already there when we moved in, but I guess, it's just an ordinary variety with yellow flowers. We never divided them until today.

I prefer more on the safer side so just dug out maybe just 1/3 of them with a spade and cut them into about 10 pieces. As suggested by RHS propagation guide, each clump has at least 3 stems.

I rinsed them a bit in the water and left them outside for drying a bit.

After dinner, I gave them a much closer and more careful look.

Our post system is going on strike, and the Hydrogen peroxide I ordered last week was still on the way. Anyway, I did disinfect my small handsaw and shear.

Some clumps are so much life!

After cleaning, removing the damaged roots, and trimming

Most are clumps with 3+ stems, but there are also smaller ones.

12 bigger pots and 6 smaller pots - they will stay in the greenhouse for a few days.

My dividing practices will temporarily stop here. I don't really need a lot of Hosta everywhere, and the best time to divide bearded Iris is after flowering.

However, it's another interesting galaxy. My takeaways from this two-day adventure are 53 pots of daughter plants.

12 pots of Chrysanthemum maximum
14 pots of sedum autumn joy
9 pots of yellow loosestrife
18 pots of daylily

Plus what I propagated last year, MUMs and autumn asters - I am confident of turning the edges of our chicken runs into lovely flower beds.