plantblr – Page 5 – Kihaku-Gato's Garden Blog (tumblr import)

The stone wall built by each generation of second-year Horticulture Technician students of Fanshawe College.

Brings a tear to my eye; its grown so much longer since the days I was a student doing the same in Cuddy Gardens.

Tiny but bold, I absolutely ADORE Mexican Morning Glory (Ipomea coccinea)!!!

In previous years I’ve seen hummingbirds take a couple sips on their way through Cuddy Gardens in autumn as they migrate south.

A bold boi Opuntia in fruit in the rock garden of Cuddy Gardens.

The other Opuntia species/cultivars in this garden pale in comparison to this variety. The native O. humifusa does not have THIS kind of size or boldness. Amazing such a bold variety/species is winter hardy in Canada.

“But Gato, did you grab any of the Opuntia fruit?”

Sad to say my self preservation from their glochids strongly overrides my seed harvesting/germinating obsessions. Prickly oriental poppies will be enough pain in my future in my greenhouse.

Candy/Blackberry Lily (Iris domestica, syn. x Pardacanda norrisii) seedheads.

The part of its common name is definitely showing loud and clear. I’ve never had luck growing this species. Perhaps starting from the seedling onwards can fix that.

Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)

Like their evergreen cousins the hollies, winterberries are generally a dioecious species. Never seen one in the wild as of yet but one day. At least seeing one irl regardless will help me recognize them in the future.

Grabbed a few berries so we’ll see if we get seedlings come spring. (which btw… don’t be fooled by the size of the berries; one berry can hold almost 6 seeds! If viability is high you do not need to collect that many berries for propagation)

I decided not to repot my tol Dracanea marginata, I did however decide to stake it (to deal with its contant leaning/tipping over on the one direction), and a good few weeks ago I had also chopped the top off (as it was extremely bent/turned around) and am trying to root it in water. I doubt it’ll root successfully in water (they work better with soil rooting with root hormone, or even just air layering) but its worth an old graduate try.

Schlumbergera, Haitora, rabbit foot fern, & Ledebouria socialis are finally repotted.

While I would’ve preferred shallower/smaller clay pots for these particular houseplants, beggars can’t be choosers. At least the weight of the clay pots will make them less top heavy.

Fingers crossed that all the Schlumbergera truncatas in this repotting batch don’t end up aborting their flowerbuds.

*fights the feeling to want to cry like a little binch about forests/woodlots found in this modestass little county*

I WOULD repot the pothos vines too like I am doing with almost everything else…….. buuuuuuut I think it might be better to cut all these leafless messes to try to root them in water, and repot the parent plants once they’ve refilled what’s left with leaves.

I can get away with shocking many plants with rough repottings and soil renovations today, but I don’t think the pothos could handle that as they are today, they’ll have to be another day for repot day. Perhaps in spring when its the ZZ plant and Hoyas’ turns, it depends on how fast the leaves come back.

From the looks of it, even with my caution with collecting on some species I still ended up with a surplus on some of my perennial seeds… maybe I should get back into the seed trading gig so that they don’t go to waste perhaps?