Tag: kihakugardenposts

F*CKING MASSIVE ROSE

Ignore unhinged jaw of my face I wasn’t planning to be in the shot. Y’know when I said “the Canadian Explorer Rose will be the T-rex of the plant relocation/rescue project” I DIDN’T REALIZE HOW ON THE MARK I’D BE ON THAT DISTINCTION! She’s fucking HUGE! Also hellishly thorny just like grandma rugosa, I actually had to get my gloves out to be able to lug her up (I was stubborn about NOT getting the gloves till that point. Much yelping had ensued beforehand). A lot of her full size was concealed by the overgrowth of weeds where she resided. Such a contrast to the other hybrid rose (which is a Hybrid Tea) which barely reaches my knee, THIS rose could reach my waist+ if propped up. In Canada this size is not unusual for many species roses, but for a lovely hybrid rose this is something I am not the least bit used to, even after having this girl for as long as I’ve had.

Unfortunately as you may have noticed from the photos though; not a lot of roots came up with the rest of her, which is bad, really bad for such a monster (ESPECIALLY if one is transplanting in MID FREAKING SUMMER). So after these photos were taken I took to pruning two thirds of her (which may still not be a liberal enough of a prune-out) which should hopefully make up for lack of roots. I’m hoping her Rugosa background gives her the edge to take to the new flowerbeds (more on that another time) and bounce back, though that does not entirely keep my confidence as I have never had luck with transplanting Rugosas either.

Fingers crossed she makes it through the summer, but if not I at least know which group of Rose hybrids I will seek once again; Canadian Explorer roses all the way.

Photographed July 8th 2018

105 Jacks in a batch

Today I got the Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) plantlets from the 2015 sowing (the first pic is admittedly not of said Jacks, rather that is of the 2016 sowed Jacks) all into their own individual pots at last. Many of them are still only just waking up from their corms which is fine by me as it’d be a LOT harder to repot them from their super-crowded pot if they were all fully awake and emerged.

With them no longer having to compete with their siblings + with me feeding them some granular fertilizer (eventually. For now I’m not giving them even a lick of fert) they should reach floral maturity much quicker (hoping under 2 years but that might be overly optimistic).

In the next few days the 2016-sown Jacks will be next to repot. We’re definitely gonna be reaching the 200+ mark once we got the 2016 Jacks potted up I’m sure. Thank god the greenhouse got a clean out to make for greatly-needed space! 

Photographed May 18th 2018

Alright since the previous seedling post didn’t get much reception HERE’S SOMETHING TO RECEPTION ABOUT!

Cornus kousa, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Asmina triloba, Magnolia macrophylla, Cercis canadensis, and Liriodendron tulipifera seedlings oh my (also Acer saccharum in the group shot but shhh we’ll get to that).

I severely underestimated the seed viability of the majority of this year’s indoor stratified seeds. Due to this a lot of sprouting seeds of Cercis, Magnolia, and Cornus had to be discarded due to very limited growlight space. Pawpaw in the future definitely is going to be indoor stratified like this despite it being a space hog, as I have gotten far more seedlings from this over outdoor style. For some unusual reason several of the pawpaw seedlings sprouted out in a twisted form (which unfortunately kills them for sellability which sucks ass). Now from here I chew my nails as I wait for space to be made in the greenhouse to move some of these guys out of the lights cause jfc they’re getting too big too fast for such a cramped space.

Photographed May 13th 2018