What Are You Planting Today, This Week, This Month?

[DigginWithJon]

3 wildflower tulips. Going to try and force them indoors! Also some sensitive plant seeds... My amazing girlfriend got them for me! Came in a little kit at the $1 store a mini terrarium!

 

[desertwillow]

Has anyone had any luck starting eucalyptus cuttings. I have trees but can't get a cutting to start.

I have no idea - and know that they wouldn't grow around here anyway. If normal cuttings don't work. . . .

You might want to try a modified layering technique to get some started. Take a plastic pot filled with growing medium. I'd add something to really hold water in the medium. Tie (I use macram) your pot near the end of a branch. Make a slit underneath a branch just less than 1/2 of the depth. I usually stick a bit of toothpick to hold the slit open a bit.

Dust with rooting compound and stick the branch, slit and all into the medium (I remove any leaves that would be under ground) with the branch tip at the end sticking out. Cover the pot with plastic wrap as much as possible to keep moisture loss low and add water when the medium feels day on top. You should get roots growing in the pot. Then you can cut the branch in front of your slit and plant the new tree you've started.

This is a modified version of sticking shrub branches into the nearby soil to get new starts. That works well for me.

Love, Smart Red

Thank you for your advice. I had thought of it but hadn't got around to it but I guess It's time to give it a try. Everything I've read online has a said they're hard to start as cuttings and reccomend seeds instead but I've never tried that either since I'd have to order online. Will try the layering though. At least that is free. Thanks again....Betty

 

[897tgigvib]

http://www.ippswr.org/

They also have a group on linkedin that they just made an open group

this is the international plant propagators society...course, everyone on linkedin is a professional something. im a caretaker. closest thing they had for me is property manager. yea, i manage properrty...when a part got almost flooded, i dug trenches to manage the property right!

but yep, there are people out there who are owners of huge greenhoiuses and things who would know what to do to propagate difficult things. The place we used to get conifer trees from told me they do conifers from cuttings in huge bulk quantities, bundled and wrapped, sprayed, humidified, warmed, cooled, sometimes for more than a year.

 

[so lucky]

Wow, Marshall, that would be an intimidating group to belong to! Maybe a person could create an on-line personality, where you have an imaginary business. You could be famous!

Desertwillow, there is a greenhouse fairly near me that has eucalyptus plants to sell occasionally. They look just like the eucalyptus that you get dried or in a florist shop. I doubt if they would be very hardy, tho. I think I remember buying one a while back, and promptly killing it.

 

[desertwillow]

Eucalyptus do very well here in the high desert. In fact, all over S. Caqlifornia and the Central Valley. They like dry conditions and will tolerate our winds. They also grow fast. I have about a dozen now ranging in size from 4 feet to over 20 feet. To buy a tree about 4 ft. costs about $40 at a nursery. I bought mine as seedlings from a neighbor that went several hundred miles from here to buy for his property and bought more to sell to help pay for his trip. I bought them for $1.25. The place he bought them doesn't ship. I've read a lot online about them and to get them to grow from cuttings they have to be cut at the right time and it takes a lot to get them started. I've been trying them for fun but will try the layering method. I have some Mulberry trees growing from cuttings now taken from two trees that I have. It's a challenge to grow in the desert but I have a big veggie garden every year and I grow roses and bearded iris besides the more desert like plants.

 

[so lucky]

My new Richters Herb catalog has eucalyptus plants and seeds for sale, in case you need to order some.

 

[desertwillow]

My new Richters Herb catalog has eucalyptus plants and seeds for sale, in case you need to order some.

Thanks, I'll look into it.

 

[RidgebackRanch]

Now that it's a new year and spring is right around the corner to scratch the planting itch I planted two small trays of micro greens. Basicall a blend of beets, chards, turnips and cabbage.

We've been sorting seeds and planning this garden.

Spring is just around the corner right???

 

[thistlebloom]

Yep Ridgeback, it's a looooong block, but if you look hard, that's spring right around that corner!

 

[RidgebackRanch]

I'm guessing I''ll probably have to shovel the sidewalk down that block a few times too!